


Penny Dreadful

by KiwiePoe



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angel Wings, Canon compliant for now, Freeform, God bails, God isn't who we think he is, Hurt Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Married Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Multi, Post-Lucifer (TV) Season/Series 05 Part 1, Protective Chloe Decker, Protective Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Protective Mazikeen (Lucifer TV), Protective Trixie Espinoza, Smart Trixie Espinoza, Spoilers for Lucifer (TV) Season/Series 05 Part 1, Swearing, The future is now, Trixie Espinoza & Lucifer Morningstar Fluff, but I'm not opposed if someone wanted to reach out, but with a plan, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:03:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27165626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiwiePoe/pseuds/KiwiePoe
Summary: Beatrice Penelope Jane Espinoza had one of the most unique upbringings in all of humankind, too bad it left her unprepared for a normal healthy relationship.Vae Bard thought the ad was too perfect to be true, until she met Penny Espinoza living alone in Greenwich Village, NY. Becoming her best friend and confidant is one thing when she was just a reclusive Private Investigator who has no boundaries it's another after Lucifer appears and summons Penny to return to L.A. for Christmas.What are two bestfriends to do, other than to help Penny's friends and family save the universe?
Relationships: Amenadiel/Linda Martin (Lucifer TV), Chloe Decker & Lucifer Morningstar, Chloe Decker & Trixie Espinoza, Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Dan Espinoza & Mazikeen, Dan Espinoza/Mazikeen, Dan Espinoza/Trixie Espinoza, Ella Lopez & Michael, Ella Lopez/Michael, Trixie Espinoza & God, Trixie Espinoza & Linda Martin, Trixie Espinoza & Lucifer Morningstar, Trixie Espinoza & Mazikeen, Trixie Espinoza & Original Character(s), Trixie Espinoza/Charlie Martin, Trixie Espinoza/Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV), Trixie Espinoza/Original Character(s)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 44
Collections: Mizu Kiri Collection





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This story is told through many perspectives but it's main focus is on Trixie and her complicated upbringing, so there is a lot of Lucifer, Maze, Chloe and Dan in it once the story gets rolling. It also goes backwards and forwards in time, so I will do my best to outline when that is happening so it doesn't get too complicated. This is my first Lucifer Fic, and I wanted to give everyone something a bit different. I've plotted out this story and am plotting out a prequel where you get to a more in-depth version of what Trixie/Chloe/Lucifer/Maze and Dan go through with the plot points of this story, if you enjoy this. Also? Swearing like sailors happens.  
> For anyone who likes help imagining characters I've been imagining Vae played by Beanie Feldstein.  
> For those who may not like the name change for Trixie - I love the name Trixie, far more than Penny, but her reasonings fit the story and so I hope that suffices enough for everyone.  
> Lastly - I will update warnings as I go. So far, there isn't much to warn against but if they do appear I will leave notes ahead of time.

  


Before language and time existed before Heaven and Earth, darkness was all that It knew. Just a formless void of nothingness with no curves, edges or lines, it felt nothing about the void, nothing ill or joyful, but It felt a longing. It felt a desire—a Loneliness. And so It split in two, a divine blinding light became, and equal half of all there was, is, and ever could be, and neither knew who came first, the rooster or the egg. They did not care because they had each other. Before they created together, they were together, equals to one another. Eventually, they made language, their children used it, and words like He and She came to be. They had their favourites, their relational ups and downs, but Neither were alone; they could satiate each other. 

Until they couldn't. 

Until He grew distant and wanted to create alone. 

But that- that is another story. And yet, that story is like a stone skipping across the surface of the water, mirroring the story you are about to hear—and mirroring one of the oldest stories, the tale of love. 

Time heals all wounds, in the end. But this is not the end for us. His end was our beginning.

Some stories are so compelling that they ripple through time, touching people throughout eons, changing slightly. But never enough.

This is their story. 

**JANUARY 7TH**

_Shave and a haircut, two bits,_ reverberates throughout a Greenwich Village loft. Exhaling her cigarette (an action closely resembling a sigh), a tall olive-skinned woman whom most would assume is in her early twenties stands and stretches. She saunters over to the door. She looks through the peephole to see a curly-haired brunette standing on the other side.

"Penny S.?" The short woman in large-framed cat-eye glasses asks, holding up her phone. "I'm here about the roommate ad?" 

The door opens an inch, dark eyes peering at her from behind it before they seem to speak. "Let me guess, spring semester N.Y.U.?" 

The stranger in front of Penny blinks twice and flushes. "The New School." 

Penny groans before closing the door and taking the chain off the latch before opening it fully. "Strike one."

Cat-eyed Frames ducks her head in greeting and half-waves before walking into the loft apartment before she slips her shoes and her backpack off by the door. Penny watches her quietly; her arms crossed over her tank top. 

"Holy shit." Escapes Frames mouth as she stands up, taking in her surroundings. The loft is easily over 2200 square feet. There is a bathroom to her left as Frames enters, a modest kitchen to her right, and an island to separate it from the rest of the open space. They move around a dark wooden dining room table stacked full of tomes and books that look like they belong in a university library. 

"Sorry _—_ just it's even more amazing than what I was expecting."

Penny rolls her eyes, but Frames is blissfully unaware as she walks around the loft, her hand tracing a pattern on the kitchen island. Penny wanders over and perches herself back in the armchair she had been sitting on before the interruption. The lithe woman reaches for her cigarette and inhales before placing it back in the ashtray beside a small expresso cup. She exhales and picks up an exotic curved blade and her apple before she begins to slice wedges. Behind the chair is three floor-to-ceiling windows narrowly separated by red brick. Beyond the kitchen is a shared wall completely obscured by bookcases overflowing. 

Frames regards Penny calmly, taking in the two messy buns that look like they belong on a child, not a twenty-something-year-old woman. Booty shorts and a tank top seem to be all that she's wearing outside a black stoned ring on her left hand.

"How can you afford this?" 

"I can't." Penny points out with her knife towards Frame's phone, still in her hand, "Hence the ad." 

Frames intrigues Penny. She's used to girls wearing Uggs and yoga pants answering her roommate ad, only to last a few months at best. This one is different.

"I didn't catch your name." Penny offers, lifting an apple slice to her mouth before resting her head on her knees.

"Nevaeh." 

A giggle washes over Penny long and full of mirth, but again Frames blushes.

"Oh, you're not kidding. Well, that's… unfortunate." 

Nevaeh shifts uncomfortably on the couch. "I could change it _—_ if it's another one of your strikes." 

Penny shrugs lazily at her. "Hey man, it's not for me to judge you based on your name. _TRUST_ me. If you want to change it, change it for yourself. But just to be clear, your parents sound like _the worst_."

Nevaeh laughs. "That's a little too easy to deduce, isn't it? After all, don't most of us flock here to New York to get away from them?"

Penny's heart skips a beat. _If you only knew._

"What about you? Do you go to school?" Nevaeh asks, her eyes roving the apartment's layout. To her left, a staircase leads up to a second-story loft where she assumes the rooms are. Her eyes meet Penny, whose back is to the floor to ceiling windows, most of the space filled with bookshelves full of books and interesting looking weapons that _couldn't possibly real_ decorate the walls.

"I am a private investigator." Penny murmurs, picking up an expresso cup beside her ashtray and takes a sip. 

"How many tenants?"

"Just me."

Nevaeh laughs, beginning to unzip her jacket and remove it. 

"What?" Penny inquires.

"A woman in her twenties lives alone in a Greenwich Village loft inside a building that values rent at over five thousand a month. And you are asking for less than a tenth of that for my portion?"

Rolling her shoulders, Trixie reaches over for her drink to take another sip of it.

"That is correct if we both choose to move forward with this arrangement."

"Do you always keep it this warm?"

"Is that a problem?"

"Not if I don't have to pay for it."

"No, the price listed is all-inclusive."

"That sounds, like a dream. This whole thing sounds like a dream." Nevaeh stares around the apartment wistfully. 

Penny snorts a small laugh and shakes her head. "Look, I think I may like you, against my better judgement, so I'm going to be honest with you. For the last few girls, it has been more of a nightmare than a dream. I'm pithy and sometimes vile. I swear like a sailor, and I smoke in the loft. I come and go at all hours. I forget personal boundaries. If you leave chocolate, cake, or chocolate cake in the fridge, _I will eat it_." 

Nevaeh nods and narrows her eyes at the woman in front of her. "You say against your better judgement. We've spent maybe two minutes together. What have you gotten from me so far?"

"Well, you yelled my name outside our apartment, which tells me you're naïve and not from the area since you're obviously not a cop. You took your shoes off at the door, which rules out more of the states, giving me the impression you're possibly Canadian. Your clothing is simple but timeless, made with quality fabrics, which tells me while you don't have much to your name, you're aware of the difference between quality and not quantity. Your name screams that your parents were millennials, but ones who must have valued the arts given your choice of school."

Nevaeh reaches over to the coffee table and takes an apple from the bowl before leaning back and crossing her legs underneath her on the couch.

"Want to know what I've gleaned in the last two minutes?" She asks before biting into the fruit.

"What's that?"

Nevaeh just smiles, "you said 'our' apartment."

**FEBRUARY**

"Damn it, Penny, close the door!" Nevaeh's heart skips a beat as she walks in on Penny going to the washroom. She turns around and raises her eyes to the sky, towels and bathrobe in hand.

"I'm just peeing Vaeh, you're fine." 

"I don't think you're grasping my point!" Vae squeaks. When she hears the toilet flush, she turns around to see Penny doing up her jeans. 

"You said boundaries." Vaeh pleads; Penny shrugs and simpers as she glides past her before Vae adds, "believe me, if you keep pressing, I will release the floodgates, and you won't know what hit you."

Vaeh goes to close the door behind her now that she's alone to enjoy her bath. She hears Penny start the espresso machine for the fifth time that day; the percolation's sound causes a small epiphany.

"And wash your hands!"

"I just PEED!"

"Don't be gross, or I'll start calling you PigPen!" Vae finishes barking down to Penny on the floor below. Before she closes the door, she listens and is rewarded by hearing the kitchen tap spring to life.

"That's what I thought," she mutters more to herself than anyone as she closes the door to draw herself a bath.

The next morning as she starts the coffee maker for their first pot of coffee, Vae sees Penny's ring sitting on the sink beside the tap. She picks it up and examines it, realizing it's neither new looking nor old, modern nor antique. The smooth black appears to be onyx, the band most likely platinum. Biting her lip, Vae looks around for a safe place to put it instead of right beside a very industrial drain. Walking upstairs, she finds one of Penny's hair elastics, loops the ring through and then walks into the hallway where there are hooks for hats and scarves. She places on a hook closest to Penny's door before heading off to school.

~***~

* * *

_You have 31 unread text messages_.

Vae's heart sinks and begins to scroll through a lengthy one-sided conversation Penny seemed to have been having with herself while Vae was in class.

She reads the last one first, as one tends to do upon opening the chat.

PigPen | 3:32p.m.

I'm not trying to accuse you of anything, but please, PLEASE, just call me when you get this message. 

PigPen | 3:30p.m.

/your room.

PigPen | 3:28p.m.

I mean, I understand if that's what happened, but I just thought I should check in before I destroy this garburator by ripping it/the rest of the house apart trying to find it.

Vae autodials Penny before scrolling through the rest of the messages and Penny answers in one ring.

"Pleasetellmeyouhaveseenmyring."

"It's on the hat hook closest to your room, on a hair elastic. You left it by the sink."

Vae listens to Penny, scramble with the phone, up the stairs and an audible exhalation of relief before she returns to the call.

"I blame you for this." And Vae can sense there is some truth to her mocking yet biting tone.

"You're welcome." She returns in a sing-song voice, only to annoy Penny further. "Next-time, where would you like me to put it?"

"There shouldn't be a next time."

"Uh-huh."

**MARCH**

"Happy birthday!" Vae squeals, handing Penny a luxurious looking piece of chocolate cake with a single candle in it.

"You made this for me?" Penny inquires suspiciously.

"Of course!"

"How did you find out?"

"Through FaceFilm, that app keeps all your personal data. For someone so private, I'm surprised you're even on it."

"It's for work... it helps with the investigating." 

"Right." Vae murmurs, watching as Penny continues to eye the cake. "One more year, then you're legal! Not that that's ever stopped you, did you know I thought you were like... twenty-two or something when I first met you? Aren't you going to make a wish?"

Penny closes her eyes, and her lips tremble as though she's silently speaking the words so fiercely they may erupt from her throat.

Then she opens them and quickly blows out the candle.

"What did you wish for?" Vae asks her, placing her own piece of cake down in front of her.

"More time." Penny murmurs before digging into the cake.

  
~***~

* * *

"Is that a sex swing?" Vaeh asks as she assesses Penny's room. 

"Can't it just be a swing Vae?" Penny doesn't seem to be too flustered by the question as she leans against the doorframe, her signature double buns replaced with a long raven ponytail, resting high on her head.

"Por qué no los dos?" Vae shrugs, jumping onto the bed as she flops into a sitting position. Their rooms are opposite one another, the bathroom they share between them, but after Vae passed the two-month mark, permission had been granted. It hasn't been easy, Penny was willing to compromise, and Vae laid tape down in areas of the living room where knives might fly past towards its target dummy _at any given moment_. Vaeh also has learned that Penny won't feed herself, but she gets hangry, meaning Vae finds herself doing the majority of the cooking for her. Still, Penny is not without her virtues. 

"It's a gift from my stepmother. Besides, I'd have to be having sex for it to be both." She laments before flopping down beside her companion on the bed. 

Vaeh looks Penny up and down with an incredulous look, choosing whether to comment on the fact her stepmother gifted her a sex swing or, "You… have a hard time finding—" Vae wiggles her eyebrows suggestively, "Someone?" 

Penny smiles wistfully, "It's not like we're playing hide and seek Vae, but I don't make friends easily. It would require me to socialize with... people. And my upbringing while **badass** was… _complicated_."

Vae has assumed that Penny came from money. The books, the clothes, the apartment. They eat and drink like broke students, but Nevaeh is acutely aware her roommate is taken care of in ways that she is not.

"So what your saying is that ordinary people bore you?" Vae enquires.

"Yes? That sounds so petty." Penny whinges.

"Yeah, well, at least you're honest." Vae tells her, staring up at the ceiling.

"Always."

"My sweet little bigot." It occurs to Vae that even though it is a 20-foot ceiling above them (the highest in the whole building, as they reside on the top floor), tiny greenish-yellow stickers are scattered in what she _thinks_ might be constellation patterns. A sex swing was adequately bolted to the roof. Even with access to the right ladder, the project would have taken hours upon hours without some sort of divine intervention.

"My upbringing wasn't that badass," Vae murmurs.

"No, from the sound of things, it wasn't."

"I'm no basic bitch though."

"Oh, I believe it." Penny laughs, "Otherwise, why would you live here with me?"

**MAY**

"Penny, pleeeeease?" Vae begs; she is getting tired of dehydrated noodle cups and macaroni and cheese for supper.

"I said no, Nevaeh." Penny sternly tells her, and Vaeh begins to pout. She crosses her arms over her chest and finds herself folding her legs underneath herself as she watches Penny continue to pick an outfit in the mirror.

"Come on, I seriously need your help. The Dior," and Penny holds up a black silk collared blouse, "Or this one, I think I got at H&M," and she shows her a heather grey cable knit that is similar in colour to the wool skirt she's got on. 

"Why should I help you get dressed for a fancy dinner that you get to go to, for free, when you won't even take me?"

"I take you for dinner on work ONE TIME."

"It was not one time." 

"I can't take you on every case."

"You're going to a fancier place?"

"No."

"Possibility you're coming home, will blood all over you again?"

"... Hopefully, not?"

"The black silk. It's from B.C.H."

And that's how Penny and Vaeh begin to categorize much of their life. There is now, and B.C.H. (Before CoHabitation), and as two people who don't have much or many, B.C.H. stuff doesn't work its way into everyday conversation frequently. Vaeh doesn't know what Penny used to do before they met, but now she spends her free nights walking Vaeh back from the corner market down the street from their loft. 

Vae's shift is over, she and Penny both with their free coffee in hand. They tend to talk about Vae's day more than Penny's, as Vae learned early into their friendship that Penny does not usually discuss much about her work as a private investigator. 

**JULY**

Tears are running down their faces as credits roll. They are lying in Penny's bed, where one of the two household televisions is located.

"Okay, breathe."

"Prometheus School of Running, oh my God," Vae chokes out, and Penny immediately shudders and rolls her eyes, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. 

"You okay?" Vae giggles, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, it's just, I have a weird reaction to hearing people take the lord's name in vain."

"Are you serious right now? You swear like a drunken sailor, on shore leave..."

"I don't think it's _that bad_." Penny counters.

"... In a brothel."

"Now you're just exaggerating."

"We are banned from that Macdonald's on 11th."

"Okay, but that eleven-year-old was a bully."

"You once used the word 'fuck' for every word in a sentence."

"Well, that's my point exactly. Monty Python was not that far off in their assessment in the versatility of the word fuck."

"So is it that you believe in God?"

And Penny begins to laugh hysterically, bitterly almost. "You could, you could say that."

"Alright." Vaeh sighs her head, resting in her hand, taking in her weird, eccentric friend who has now established another parameter to their relationship.

"Alright?" Penny questions.

"Alright."

**AUGUST**

Vaeh climbs the stairs to their fourth-floor loft, meeting with a delivery person leaving a note.

Penny's shouting can be heard on the other side of the door. 

"She not answering?" She asks.

"I knocked miss, and it's only her voice in there. I think she's on the phone."

Vae offers an apologetic smile. As she turns the keys and enters, she catches Penny's eyes, her shoulder pressed into her phone, giving her the ability to play with a knife, bright and silver (a personal favourite) in erratic short bursts.

"I don't give a **_flying fuck_** Linda, which is rather apropos in this case, don't you think? He knows where I live; it's not like his name isn't on the deed."

Vae creates a peace sign towards Penny before turning the aforementioned fingers towards her eyes, then motioning across the room at Penny to force her attention.

"What?" And there is petulance in Penny's tone as she uses her free hand to hold her phone and give Vae her attention.

"You have registered mail," Vae whispers as if to try and give the caller and Penny privacy that has already been broken. 

"Just sign for me." Penny huffs, and then she's back on the phone. " _What are you even talking about?_ "

Vae wants to tell her that this isn't how these things work. That the delivery person isn't going to allow Vae to sign for mail just that easily, but Penny is deeply invested in an argument once more, and the stranger at the door interrupts with a "Miss, you can just sign x and type her name in."

" _What?!_ " Penny clips out so pithy it sounds odd and catches Vae off guard. 

"How? WHY?" And Vaeh is now REALLY intrigued as she signs the package. Not many things can get Penny to use that many investigative words that closely in order, that she's now playing 'wh' word bingo in her mind.

"How long?" 

DOUBLE HOW! 

"I've been gone for two years _—_ "

_Booo, you broke the chain after a double how? Boooooo..._ Vae giggles internally as she closes the loft door, dumps the package on Penny's desk and slips her headphones on at her workstation.

Sometime later, after Vae has slipped her focus into the design she's creating, her head and shoulders bouncing as she plays with colour palettes, Penny crosses her field of vision. 

Vae slips the headphones off, "Hey roomie," she greets in a sing-song voice, "Who was that?"

She watches as Penny absent-mindedly fiddles with her ring. "My thera _—_ Linda."

"You have a thera-Linda too? Where do you keep yours?" Vae pantomimes looking around the apartment leerily before leaning in and whispering, "I keep mine in a drawer by my bed." 

"What?" Penny asks, caught off-guard.

"Exactly," Vae says and goes back to her monitor. Her shoulder-dance slowly begins once more even though she respects Penny enough to keep her headset off until she's done. 

"Linda was a family therapist and friend. She's like an aunt to me." 

" _Ah_ , family problems." She murmurs as she watches Penny slip into the chair at her desk. 

"It's my stepdad. He's gone missing." 

Vae's attention is peaked now as she looks over at Penny, who is staring off into the middle distance. "Wow, are you okay?" 

"Yes," Penny's eyes go wide in realization. "Sorry, I should have explained. He does this from time to time. When my mom and he _—_ this one time." She looks at Vae with jaded eyes, seemingly confused as to what is holding her back.

"When I was little, he was known to bail when things got rough. When he and mom finally figured their literal prophetic shit out, he got better. He had his moments, but he genuinely tried. Now that my mom is gone. Well," Penny says, her eyes drifting down to the package that Vae had signed for. 

"I didn't know your mom was gone." Vae murmurs reaching over the desks and placing her hand on Penny's. 

"She is, and she isn't. That's the worst part. She is, and she isn't." Vae looks down at their hands and sees her thumb rubbing Penny's wrist. 

"So Lu _—_ Dad, Linda says he's not handling it well. Which, newsflash, no one is taking it well. But that's no reason to treat my Stepmom and Dad the way he has been, regardless of their previous problems. SPEAKING OF WHICH," Penny pivots, pulling her hand out and opening the package. 

"Let's see what the big-bad-momma-bear sent me this time." She takes one of the knives she uses as a letter opener, the sparkly handle painted bright.

No joy or recognition lights up Penny's face as she places the package down on her desk.

"What?" Vaeh asks, more interested than she ever has been with Penny's details about her life before their cohabitation.

Vae stands to look in the box and sees white, radiant feathers reflecting the light from the room back at them. There aren't many, only three, and they are covered in bright red dots of blood. 

"Say what you want about my parents," Vaeh finally speaks, her voice concerned, "but yours sound like _the worst._ "

**NOVEMBER**

Vae hears a clinking sound in the sink before she sees it, and her heart stops briefly as it casually rolls towards the garburator drain. Quickly, she snatches it out of the slow-motion moment she foresees it falling down towards a black abyss. 

Frustrated, she takes the ring and seeks vengeance on the woman who almost gave her a heart attack. 

She finds Penny in her room, a file named DROMOS, in her hand, THE ENDLESS, GAUDIUM, MISC. LILLIM, NOS?, CONSTANTINE on the bed. She's smoking and drinking, listening to piano-heavy dance music so loud that she couldn't hear Vae knocking on the door. 

"Penelope, I swear if I find this thing one more time _—"_

"I knew where it was." She tells her as she turns down the volume.

"It's no use to you down the drain!"

"It's no use to me, period." Penny murmurs, and Vae feels a shriek almost bubbling within her, "just, take it, will you?!"

"I promise, no more hand washing."

  
~***~

* * *

"Are you not visiting anyone for Thanksgiving?" Vae enquires from the kitchen, the date looming closer and closer.

"No. Are you?" Penny asks, looking up from a case file she has sprawled out on her desk. Vaeh had answered the door at 7:30 a.m. this morning to receive it for her, forcing her signature since Penny was still fast asleep. As she has noticed before, it comes from Los Angeles. She had tossed it on her best friend's desk before hitting the button to the coffee machine and passing out on the couch while it brews, only to be woke by Penny a few hours after that.

"Canadian Thanksgiving is in October," Vaeh reminds her.

"Right. So you didn't, sorry." Penny murmurs, Vae dressed in pajama pants and a hoodie, shuffles over to her drafting table/computer desk hybrid that they set up on the opposite side of Penny's dark mahogany antique. She hands Penny a cup of coffee before flopping down into her chair.

"Kind of hard when they all live back west," Vae adds, reaching for her drawing tablet.

"Mmmm... mine too, at least those left," Penny adds as she opens her laptop.

Vae nods softly, files this extra information in the THINGS THAT EXPLAIN PENNY compartment of her mind.

**DECEMBER**

The snow falls around them in puffy white clouds, a wind sending them sideways, enough of a nip to the air to have them be hustling back to their loft after dinner with some of Vae's classmates. Penny is still going on about the impending holidays.

"If neither of us sees no point _—_ "

"Can't afford," Vae interjects. 

"Oh, so you're saying that if I paid for you, you would head back for the holidays then?"

"With your family, sure," Vae replies illusively. 

"No... that wasn't part of the question."

"Then what is our actual plan?" Penny begins again, "because I cannot have dinner with your friends Rose and David twice in one month." 

"They have been _the worst_ since they started listening to that new podcast. Sometimes they play it so loud when we are in the studios at school, I can't hear the instructor. I'm not," and Vae makes an awkward motion with her arms, "built to receive that much stimuli." 

"Do you even hear yourself sometimes?" Penny turns to Vae, her breath coming out in steam as they try to fight the cold. 

"Please, coming from the one with a sex swing in her room." 

"It's not used _for sex_!" Penny huffs, shoving her hands deeper into her pockets.

"Are you telling me you actually swing in it... just because?"

"Are you telling me you wouldn't?" 

"Pffft... I dunno." Vae begins, looking over at a heavily bundled up Penny, dark eyes peering out, "Christmas movie Marathon? But I mean, entertaining Christmas movies. Die Hard, Krampus, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Nightmare Before Christmas _—_ "

"Gremlins?" Penny asks, hopefully.

"Do you even have to ask?" Vae retorts. "Do you want to watch Zuzu's Petals?" 

"Is that the remake of It's a Wonderful Life?" Penny hesitantly asks.

"I don't know, I've never seen It's a Wonderful Life." They continue their trek towards their loft, the snow gently falling above them before Penny clears her throat.

"Look, I've meant to talk to you about something important _—_ "

"Oh Pen, I thought I told you friends don't ask friends to come to their improv shows _._ "

"No! That's not what this is about. Although it really hurts, you won't even try."

"What is this about then?"

"A couple of months ago when we had our Alien marathon—"

"—and I said oh my God, and you got hella weird?"

"I did not get hella weird."

"You got sooooo weird. It was visceral! I watched you shudder."

"Do you believe in God?" Penny plows ahead; they're almost to their building. 

"What?" Vae is surprised by the line of questioning, "Why?" 

"I don't know, it just struck me. I never thought about your feelings or thought to ask. I just did kind of what I watched mostly everyone around me my entire life do and focus on my own feelings before realizing I should consider yours." She holds open the door for Vae, and they begin the climb up the stairs.

"No. Sort of? As an artist I've dabbled with the lore of Judeo-Christian theology but like, it's all stories to me. I think I'm agnostic."

"I think it's reasonable to want proof," Penny mutters. 

"Well, if I was one for needing proof, I would have given up believing you were a P.I. months ago."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing! Nothing..." and Vae rolls her eyes towards the heavens before smirking a carefree grin at her. "I mean all those files you could just be a very thorough stalker."

"Stalking is essential to the job, yes." Penny agrees before unlocking their front door and letting Vae through before walking through herself.

"And I imagine so are the arts, but that doesn't seem to inspire you to invite me along."

"The arts?"

"Yeah, like, sketching a suspect, or taking photographs. You know I covet your camera, and when I asked you about ISO and aperture, I could have sworn I saw you drool."

"Maybe I could use help with the camera."

"Maybe I could help you with the camera." 

Hours later, when they are both in sleep clothes and are sitting on the couch, finishing their tasks for the night before heading to bed, Penny signals to Vae she wants to talk to her. Vae puts her pencil down and pulls her headphones off.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come with me on a job."

"Saywhat?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to come with me on a j—"

"Okay, so you said what I thought I heard you say. When? Why?"

"Or forget it, you can stay here."

Vaeh throws a pillow at Penny's head, which Penny spears with her knife reflexively. She pulls the knife out and puts the pillow behind her back as though it were entirely natural behaviour.

"Just a few questions, how good are you at drawing someone from memory?"

~***~

* * *

The P.I. and the Artist are at a frat party, scoping the crowd. Vae has her arm looped through Penny's, sipping from a solo cup that Penny had procured for her when they entered. They tend to stay tethered together in situations like this, but Vae is barely focusing on Penny's conversation and some frat dudes are having. If she has to draw any of these faces later, she knows she needs to study their features, read their eyes, soak up the details. 

"I'm a private investigator," Penny yells above the music's obnoxious noise to the guy in front of her, her leather jacket groaning with her movements.

Vae's is in the backpack that she brought, containing her pencils and sketchbook; their winter-wear is also stored there. Vae imagines she must look like a hunchback currently, and two men have offered to take it for her, but she'd like to be able to leave at a moments notice and get home without freezing to death, so instead, she continues to look like a clinging humped sidekick to her attractive best friend.

"Oh yeah, so like… Do you catch people cheating and shit?" the guys all laugh nervously. Two dudes high-five as Vae rolls her eyes and continues to nurse her drink. One of the frat bro's winks at her. The party has a strict rule on no phones and even had checked the two of them at the door. Vae's been to party's with no phones before done to encourage people to mingle, but this has to be one of her the most boring places she's ever endured it. 

"Cheating and shit are below my paygrade," Penny informs him. Vaeh hyper focuses on this part of the conversation while pretending to be caught in the song. She doesn't know much about many of Penny's cases, but she can agree that seems to be out of Penny's wheelhouse. 

"So, what then?"

"Bounty reconnaissance, sometimes enforcement," Penny adds an eerie smile on her face, her eyes flash darkly, and she looks the most intimidating she has since Vae first met her.

Vaeh is confused at her sudden mood shift until _—_

"So if you don't remove your hand," Penny's voice drips cold, "you'll see what kind of enforcement I'm capable of."

  
~***~

* * *

"How much longer?" 

Penny narrows her eyes as she continues to look for her target. The bros and the dudes are all high fiving each other loudly while a bunch of partnered sorority girls giggle in a corner. 

"Trust me, this is not how I want us to spend our Friday night." Penny smiles at her briefly. 

"As long as we don't get assaulted _—"_

" _—_ again."

" _—_ assaulted again. Or roofied. Or both in that unfortunate order." Vae murmurs.

"I figured we would do some reconnaissance for an hour tops. If the bounty appears you get a good look, treat you to free drinks, then we can do whatever you want. If you want to go home and get drunk off box wine and binge-watch horror films, you just say the word, and I'll spend a whole twenty on the booze."

"Penny Espinoza, we don't need four boxes of cheap wine."

"Two each?"

"You do you, but I'll stick to one. My final assignments are due in a week."

They both fall silent for a few minutes, each getting lost in their thoughts.

"You said you enforce bounties." Vaeh starts, "Is that what all the knives are for?"

"Not always," Penny answers illusively. 

Penny's eyes fall on the stairs as a frat-bro begins a drunken stagger down the stairwell, and she notices his pallor colour and blood flowing from his left ear. 

"Wait here." 

Vaeh scrunches her face at her roommate, and "What, wait? Why would I wait? I have to see his face if I'm going to draw him." 

Penny continues to follow the possible dead frat-dude as he makes his way to the frat house door and slips out into the night. As she slips between the partygoers, Penny's one hand reaches for the door handle as the other slides behind her back for her blade. 

There are still too many people around in the front yard, but the drunken dead dude (triple D?) is down the sidewalk and heading into the park. 

"Go home, Vaeh." Penny calls out, "The scope of this assignment has changed entirely." 

"You can't just ask me to come with you on a job, then tell me to go home, essentially leaving me stranded forty blocks away from it in this Den of Rohypnol." Vaeh catches her and grabs her arm. 

"I doubt that you're at risk." Penny scoffs. 

Vaeh winces, her feelings hurt as she takes a step backwards from her friend. "Wow. Nice Penelope. Real nice." Vaeh had already removed the winter attire from her backpack and throws Penny her gloves watching as Penny catches them gracefully. She drops the bag as she slips on her peacoat. 

"I don't have time for this!" Penny finds herself begging. 

"Then let's go." Vae holds out her hand in a gesture that indicates that Penny should lead the way. 

Penny growls in frustration and stomps off ahead of Nevaeh, shoving her hands deep into her leather jacket. Vaeh exhales shakily and picks up the bag, placing it on her back before doing the same with her own hands. 

The shorter of the two watches her friend speed walk ahead, trying to make up the difference, but the triple D hasn't managed to get very far away from them. 

She shakes her head and looks down at her feet, leaving imprints in the snow. 

Vae hears it before seeing it; it sounds like a strong wind whooshing around her head, her curls getting caught behind her glasses. When she manages to pull them out of her face and looks up, she stops in her tracks. 


	2. Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Vae. This is my stepfather I was telling you about," and she swears out of the corner of her eye she can see Lucifer stand a little taller and smile.  
> "You speak of me?"  
> "Of course dummy." Penny gives him a dubious look. "How on Earth can I get around that?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my crazy head canon, the two months Lucifer was trapped in Hell was between November/December 2019 and a bit of January 2020. Trixie's birthday is March, and I feel like the show likes to mess with our heads about time a lot, so this is how I've set up the timeline!
> 
> Also, before I realized I had this whole grand arching plot I wanted to do this one off of Trixie and the Family Dinner, and I kept envisioning it in a scene based format with this song playing so I've queued' it up, and if you want to try it out, by all means check out my weird scene brain mode I was going through. Or save it as a treat for later! Or don't bother! I also don't want to turn you off my fic so I'll let you know it's Taylor Swift right now, because I totally feel that would be what Trixie at this age would be listening to. 
> 
> There's a note beside where in the chapter the song would start to play, so look for it near the date if that's something your interested in.  
> https://youtu.be/Dkk9gvTmCXY?t=154

> **DECEMBER 20TH 2028**

"Hello Urchin." He softly greets her, and Penny needs to remind herself that her father and Linda have been worried sick about him. 

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" Penny continues in her cold disapproving tone while she nears Lucifer, her arms crossed. Her previous quadruple D (drunk-dead-demon-dude) is not forgotten so easily. 

Lucifer's brilliant white wings are a vision to behold, as usual, flexing to their grandest state before he tucks them away into their incorporeal-other-dimension form. His black suit reveals no signs of wear, although there are traces of blood on his dress-shirt collar. He smells of brimstone and smoke again, and she's pretty sure she knows _exactly_ where he's been for the last six months.

"I considered you may react as such, and I can explain." He tells her, holding up his hands submissively as she continues her march towards him. At twenty, she knows she has always terrified him, but instead of binding him with the torturous embraces of her youth, she seizes his elbow and turns him on the heels of his Louboutins towards her original bounty.

"You can explain as we follow one of your friends. I assume that's what this is about." As soon as the words are out of Penny's mouth, he roots himself and her momentum has her turning to face him.

"I'm afraid that we share a mutual interest in your target—"

"Fuck—"

"Pardon? My child I have no need—"

"WHATINTHEACTUALHELLPENNY?!" Seems to come out in one singularly loud breath, as though she is angrily singing her way over to them. For the briefest of moments when he appeared, Penny had forgotten her. But Lucifer had a way of causing that within her, visions of tackling him repressed deep in her heart.

"Penny?" Lucifer lifts a brow at Beatrice Penelope Jane Espinoza, standing in front of him.

"Want to go there right now _Sam_?"

"Duly noted." The corner of his mouth curls up, and he bows his head gently at her.

Vae swallows, her eyes bright and wide. Penny can see she is breathing erratically solely from the steams of breath coming from her mouth.

"And who might your uh, angel-winged-five-seconds-ago-and-now-clearly-not, friend be?"

 _My mom's partner. Satan? My step-devil?_ That had always been Penny's favourite moniker he held, but she decides against it in this instance. 

"Vae. This is my stepfather I was telling you about," and she swears out of the corner of her eye she can see Lucifer stand a little taller (if that's even possible) and smile.

"You speak of me?"

"Of course, dummy." Penny gives him a dubious look. "How on Earth can I get around that?"

Vae starts to giggle, her whole face going red as she looks back and forth between Penny and Lucifer. 

"Right, of course. Are we still not going to address the issue I'm currently having with the ethereal white wings?" Vae is doing that thing she does with her whole arm when she's circling a situation in front of her that she needs to get to the bottom of. Penny also registers that she is looking at her step-devil with a longing that Penny has watched women project for as long as she can remember. But Vae also seems far more interested in finding out precisely what she had seen more than throwing him to the snowy ground.

Penny looks over to Lucifer and sighs.

"Lu...ook Dad, could you maybe, help a daughter out and explain to my roommate and longest friend, _since I left home_... exactly, what she may have seen?"

Lucifer's eyes travel between the two young ladies in front of him, and his shoulders sink as he resigns to Penny's request.

"Right. Well, first— is it possible to meet you back at the loft? I never actually allowed Hell to freeze over, and while immortal, I'm not impervious to this..." and she watches him wave his hand with fluid grace at the snow falling around them, "temperature."

A brisk wind picks up, and she watches as he fights a shudder standing there in nothing but his suit. They're wasting time, and he doesn't seem to be that concerned about her quadruple D. 

"Are we not tracking... _someone_?"

"You might be Urchin. But I have no clue what you are talking about."

"Well that's just fucking perfect. Isn't it?" 

Scowling, Penny turns from him and takes Vae by the arm, turning her back towards the park entrance. 

"Come on, Vae," Penny sighs, "Let's go home."

"What about—" And the sound of Lucifer leaving interrupts Vae, who was turning around to address him.

"Right. Wings."

~***~

* * *

"Are we not going to talk about the fact that your stepfather has wings? Like straight up, gorgeous angelic—"

"We'll talk about it when we get home," Penny tersely answers. They are almost halfway home before Vae has seemingly come down from whatever level of shock she had been suffering from. Vae feeling better, however, also means Vae being her usual talkative self. 

"How about the fact that he smelt like sulphu—"

"We'll talk about it when we get home." 

Penny relishes in a brief reprieve before Vae starts again. 

"He said, 'allow Hell to freeze over.' "

"We'll talk—"

"He said immortal."

"—about it when we get home."

"I guess the immortality makes sense. I mean, when I was processing it all, images of your Mom as a hot cougar or having you when she was like twelve kept popping up."

"Vae."

"Nicely done by the way, Penny's mom because DAAAAAAMN girl, your dad—"

"Vae."

"Yes?"

"Please don't tell me you want to sleep with my stepfather." 

"Don't you?" 

"NEVAEH!" 

"Oh, please. You have eyes," and Vaeh dramatically rolls hers before crossing her arms and adding, "don't pretend you don't know **_that_** kink exists."

Penny remembers when they had boundaries. Vae did warn her, but Penny wasn't expecting L.A. to catch up with her so fast.

~***~

* * *

In her bedroom, she finds Lucifer, freshly showered and redressed in a crisp white dress shirt covered in a grey cashmere sweater. He's brushing his hair in her vanity mirror when he sees her. 

"I see you found the extra clothes Linda sent me in your in my closet," Penny tells him, sighing and leaning up against the doorframe. 

"I would have preferred more than just one suit and a Burberry at that. If it's black, it might as well be Prada. Nonetheless, I appreciate the good Doctor thought of something a tad warmer. Now, your friend—"

"Vae."

"Vae, what exactly is your expectation?"

Penny sighs. "I don't expect you to lie if that's what you're asking."

"Yes," and he places her brush down before rubbing the bridge of his nose impatiently, "but what, for your sake, my dear, am I omitting here?"

"Just, take it as it comes. She thinks Mom is dead or maybe has dementia? It's easier when they don't straight out ask. She knows you were missing; she saw your wings, and she knows me as Penny. The name **we** chose when we agreed I was being stationed here undercover, so... that being said."

"Right. Well, as you know, time in Hell moves much differently than here—"

Penny cuts him off. "Yes. Yes. Millenia’s, probably ten. Put it back in the deck Lucifer. You're choosing this time."

"Right..." He stares off beyond her and nods, swallowing. "Well, I'll do right by you, Urchin, as best as your favourite celestial parent can." 

"That's... not fair, regardless of how accurate, at the moment."

"Well, we're all doing our best."

"Are you? Because after Vae goes to bed, _you and I_ ," Penny practically snarls, "are going to have our own conversation about how you abandoned training Charlie—"

"About that—"

"—After being an absolute asshat to both Dad and Maze." 

"So, you heard about that, did you?"

"And you know how I got to hear about that? From a very concerned Linda who took your note to mean something COMPLETELY different than what I think you intended."

"I was TRYING to communicate!"

"Then the same day I receive three bloodied feathers from Maze, after a text that read, and I quote, 'A gift from the King of Fuckery.'"

"Oh, so you got my gift!" He exclaims.

A giggle echoes from the floor below, and Penny steps out of her room to see Vae waiting for them in the living room. Turning back, Penny leans in towards him.

"Lucifer?" She whispers harshly.

"Yes, my dear."

"You have ten seconds to get downstairs or so help me Mom you're going to lose more than three feathers."

  
~***~

* * *

Vae sits in Penny's favourite chair, where she keeps her knife and scotch, sitting on her knees. Her hands are placed in her lap like a child waiting for their instructor this evening, amber-brown eyes wide with wonder.

She had always imagined Penny had some insanely wild upbringing. Vae had fantasized that it involved chauffeurs and private jets, boarding school and the social elite. 

Months ago, Vae had found a hidden photo of what she had assumed was Penny's incredibly beautiful parents, all surrounding her as she blew out nine candles on a cake. It had been tucked in Penny's dresser and had been accidentally seen while putting Penny's socks away. So when Vae witnessed him appear out of nowhere, with ethereal white wings, she had assumed that he was Penny's father. Their colouring had seemed to her, the most similar.

But this?

Vae isn't a private investigator, but she has always been keenly inquisitive and observant as far back as she can remember. That and an hour trip back home? She's pretty sure she's figured out some details. 

He said Hell. He said immortal. No one denied angel wings.

Penny is sitting closest to her on the couch, her feet tucked up underneath her as she takes a knife and soap carving out of the end table that separates them. Vae watches while Penny takes the tumbler of scotch and pours him a glass. He takes it graciously from her and sips, slightly wincing.

"I'm not legal yet. It's not like I have Macallan or Woodford Reserve on hand." Penny tersely tells him.

Penny's impossibly-handsome-most-likely-an-angel-possibly-the-devil stepfather crosses, then re-crosses his legs, placing his hands over his knees and exhaling loudly. 

"Alright, Vale,"

"Vae—"

"Vae, what would you like to know about?"

"Wings. Angel?"

"Once."

That adds up. Vae looks over at Penny, who is doing an excellent job of pretending her soap carving is far more interesting than the conversation happening in the room currently. Vae swallows down the silence. There is one part that isn't making much sense to her.

"And Penny called you Sam."

"For Samael. The name Father gave me."

"Father as in God?"

"The only Father I've ever had."

"Right."

Silence once more. Penny's impossibly-handsome-definitely-a-fallen-angel-was-there-a-Sam-name-for-the-devil? Stepfather holds her gaze with a wry smile plastered on his face, but she senses sadness in his eyes. He told her his name, so why does she feel if she were to refer to him as Sam, it would bother him immensely? 

"Why do I feel like I'm being lied to?"

"I do NOT lie, Miss Vae, friend of my daughter." 

"What should I call you then, sir?"

He looks at Penny, and she sighs before saying. "She's going to find out sooner or later."

"Lucifer Morningstar."

Vae's signature giggle of wonderment springs forth in awkward waves. Lucifer laughs, charmingly along with her, but Penny, Penny, chooses to remain silent if the point needs to be driven home. Vae's eyes grow wider as the realization hits, and then...

And then she's laughing hysterically, a gasping wheeze as tears are falling out of the corners of her eyes.

"Vae?" 

"It's natural Urchin, although the delay seems to be a new variable, almost all humans go slightly mad at the sight of divinity."

Vae finds this even more amusing and is holding her side and going slightly red.

"I didn't." 

"Yes, well, you were never for following norms, were you dear?"

"Vae?!"

"I'm sorry..." Vae manages to get out, "I'm sorry, Penny... but... You don't like taking the Lord's name in vain?" And she's back to dying of laughter as she tries to spit out, "But then you called him a flying fuck?!"

"Once." Penny's eyebrows almost lift into her hairline as she turns to Lucifer, her hand holding the blade lifts a finger in protest. "Maybe twice. And sorry-not-sorry."

"So, let me get this straight, Miss Vae, you just found out that celestials, divinity, God, and the Devil are real, and your reaction seems to be one of mocking my adopted offspring?"

Vae nods her head fervently. "You can't see the humour in this? How can you NOT see how bullshit-cuckoo-bananas this all is?"

"Oh, so you’re merely mocking me and calling me a liar," and flames are alight in his eyes. 

"Lucifer!" Penny chastises. 

But whatever Lucifer's desired effect may have been, it doesn't seem to have worked because now Vae is practically falling out of the chair laughing at Lucifer and Penny. 

"YOU DO THE EYE THING EVEN!"

"Urchin, I don't know if I have the fortitude to handle this ridiculousness much farther."

"They literally relaunched the Diablo television series last year, and she wouldn't let me talk about it at ALL with her! I mean, Penny even told me that all her parents worked in law enforcement in some way or another. So, I mean, while I'm aware this is my current reality. You can't blame me for thinking I've had a stroke and have woken up today to live in this fairy tale, wouldn't you agree?"

Lucifer leans back on the couch and takes another sip of the scotch.

"This is so unfair, Penny. This whole time we kept listening to Rose and David talk about future religious upbringing for their non-existent progeny at our dinner party, and you didn't even mic drop them? And we have lived together for almost a year, and this is how I find out? What the Hell was going on back there? What were **we** chasing? Why does Satan have bad ass angel wings? I mean, I'm an art major, and I've heard of the Gentlemen Devil archetype but this," and she waves her arm at Lucifer. He is sitting there, his hair in light curls from no product, a five o'clock shadow already appearing even though he seemed to have shaved before they got back.

"This, I gotta say, seems a tad on the nose."

"Archetypes exist for a reason Miss Vae."

"I'm not finished." Vae tells him, and he appears shocked by her blatant rudeness. "—sir, Morningstar, sir. Sorry. But again... but I'm going to roll with it."

"Like do I watch that show, and I know your entire life story? Is that on purpose? How did you meet Penny's Mom? I know she said you were partners for years before you got together. I thought you guys had married. Does the Devil write vows? Is it before God? Do Satanists get it right, or do you despise them?"

"Vae—"

"If you're here, what's going on with Hell? Wait, are Hell and Heaven real? You don't seem evil; do you work with God? That's what always threw me off... why punish the bad if you're all about it, am I right?"

"Vae—"

"Urchin, dear, let me," Lucifer says, holding his hand out gently in Penny's direction and placing the glass of Scotch on the table in front of him. He turns his gaze back towards Vae and smiles.

"No. No. Through a case. We were partners four years before we became partnered. Yes. Yes, I wrote them and yes. They get some right and some wrong, like every being and organization on the planet, and yes, because I abhor most organizations that misinterpret the truth. I am here, meaning Hell has no ruler currently, and yes, both are very real." He pauses to take another sip of the scotch Penny poured him but does not seem to wince this time at the lacklustre taste, "I am pleased to hear that you skipped past the exam's evil portion. So yes, I punish the wicked, those whose guilt sends them to my kingdom, and yes, I work with God. I think that covers everything. So please, do you have any more banal queries you'd like to subject me to Miss Vale?"

"Vae—"

"Or will you relinquish my time so I can spend what little I have with my daughter before returning to my post?"

Vae rolls her eyes. "Passive-aggressive gentlemen devil? You've underhandedly praised my ability to weather this, but then chastise me for wasting time? You can just say you'd like some alone time, just please don't kick me out. I also pay you rent."

Both look at Vae inquisitively.

"Right, Penny. A top floor apartment that's 2300 square feet in Greenwich Village, and you're telling me that one of your other three parent's name is on the deed?"

Penny and Lucifer exchange looks and shrugs in understanding. It seems Vae is more than capable of deducing elements without the two other investigators in the room. 

"Penny, I know how articulate you can be and how well-bred, but I've also seen what you can do in 5.4 seconds to that—" and Vae points to Penny's practice target, "—you lovingly rename every month depending on who has pissed you off. I know to buy you the spiciest ramen, that you need at least three expressos a day just to function, and that when I really annoy you, I can always rely on chocolate cake to get back into your good graces. So I am asking you, as what I had assumed was your best friend: What. The. Actual. Fuck?"

"Vae." Penny sighs, turning her body away from Lucifer and towards her friend.

"I know I have ALOT to catch you up on—a lot. And you deserve answers, and you know I don't lie."

"OOOOH OOOOH, You said you don't lie." Vae is snapping her fingers and pointing at Lucifer, every snap causing him to wince. "Why do they call you the prince of lies?"

"My twin brother Michael used to bare a striking resemblance to me, even though I've never been one to see it, it's all in the posture. Anyways, he has always been the one to enjoy deceiving humans. From my understanding, he has changed a lot also since his fall."

"When did that happen?" Vae asks.

"When I was twelve or was I eleven?" Penny asks Lucifer.

"It was after you initiated martial law at our family dinner, Urchin."

Vae looks slightly horrified.

"I started a food fight. Martial law to him means I started a food fight."

"You're little act of vigilantism ruined a charming Armani suit that night Beat...iful daughter of mine?" 

Vae gives them a confused look. Lucifer and Penny so weird around each other, she assumes it's because he's been missing (from the smell of sulphur probably back in Hell) for the last six months. But there's an undercurrent that Lucifer needs to do a lot more than show up to get Penny to calm down. 

"So, you're saying that Michael liked to lie and because he looks like you everyone associates it with you because you have a bad wrap." Vae postulates.

"That would summarize the situation very well, indeed."

"Twin stuff."

Penny eyes Vae as though she can tell Vae is bringing another new thing to the table she wasn't expecting. Vae doesn't give in to Penny's expectant look. Vae is now acutely aware of JUST how much Penny keeps from her, and she's allowed to have secrets too. 

"Vae, we need to talk."

"Yes, we do."

"No, I know that. I understand you and me, but I'm saying, Lucifer and I, we need to discuss some things. Privately. And tomorrow? Tomorrow when you get up? We will go grab breakfast," And Penny turns around, "ON HIM, wherever you want to go. And if he is still here in the morning, I will make him come with us, and you can subject him to as many questions as you want."

"Please," Vae eyes him suspiciously, "He's already made it clear he's going to be gone by morning."

"True, but he's still going to leave me an allowance because regardless of who he is, Lucifer's still my dad, and if he leaves, I promise I will fill you in. But I have to find out first."

  
~***~

* * *

"My child—" but Penny holds up a finger to Lucifer and waits for Vae to leave the bathroom and return to her room. She looks up to see Vae watching them suspiciously as she walks out of the upstairs bathroom and into her room, a brush stroking her hair as she paces towards her door. The door closes, and then Penny puts her finger down.

"Cut the crap Lucifer, I heard you say he was a mutual suspect."

"Then why call him a friend? you knew I could deny that."

"For **that** reason. You don't have friends in Hell, you have subjects. If you wanted me to track him, you would have agreed."

He looks at her with such wistful pride she is taken back. "You have so much of her in you. Her bravado and keen mind."

"Dad, stop! I don't want to talk about Mom." They both stop and break eye contact; the emotion is a little too raw for either of them. It was a slip into old habits, comfortable years ago, yet painful in their current state.

"Well then, the next part is going to be rather difficult, as that is why I'm precisely here." 

> **FEBRUARY 6TH 2020 7:06 P.M. | | TRACK TO BE PLAYED HERE.**

Trixie thumbs her iPod's volume to the max, watching everyone around her argue in a pantomime to the music. Gathered with her at the table are angels, adults, a demon, the Devil, and God.

Charlie is asleep in the pack-and-play that Linda set up in her bedroom. 

She kind of envies Charlie right now.

She tries to get her mother's attention by staring lasers at her, but Chloe is too busy yelling at her Dad sitting to her right, wincing. The bench that they share with Maze and Michael is vibrating underneath the eleven-year-old. She looks at Maze to her left, who is currently pointing at Linda and Amenadiel. 

No one is paying her any attention, except for one. 

She looks back at God and gives him her best _Who-do-you-think-you-are?_ Scowl, the one she mastered last year when she met Eve. 

No one asked Beatrice if she wanted to be here, listening to this.

She had no choice in the matter. 

Okay, well, she did demand a seat at the table, but she thought it would be a typical awkward family dinner, not watching every adult in her life outside of Ella, and school lose their temper on each other.

She picks up her fork and scrapes a bounty of mashed potatoes on to it. Maybe it's the music that inspires her, or perhaps it's the frustrations of being trapped with a bunch of adults who are behaving worse than her seventh-grade peers. Still, she looks up at God once more, meeting each other's eyes, and he smiles kindly at her, an invitation for what is about to happen next.

Like a miracle, white fluffy clouds of potato fly through the air catching the attention of the adults around her as they reach their final destination, landing with a resounding sloppy sound on God's right cheek. 

And as the track dies out, the adults– speechless stare at her in awe, and she pulls off the headset of her ears and sighs. 

"Finally," she murmurs and picks up the knife to cut into the roast beef on her plate. 

She hardly participates as carrots begin to bounce of chests, potatoes slap against faces and into hair. There is still an uproar, but the cacophony now has squeals of laughter interlaced between ridiculous insults. She looks up at her original target, and God continues to smile warmly at her, not engaged in the foolishness around her.

> **FEBRUARY 6TH 2020 11:06 A.M.**

Eight hours before Trixie started pandemonium at the dinner table, she had been sitting in her room listening to the hurried whispers of her mother on the phone. 

"Dan, he asked that you be there, and really? After everything in the last few days, you _owe him._ "

She's anxious. And bored. And continuously feeling the battles that her mother and father seemed to be facing. Her birthday is next month, and she's pretty sure they both haven't even had time to think about it because usually they're asking her what she wants for a special treat, perhaps a gift, anything at this point.

"No... Nonono... I mean God, as in your friend Amenadiel's dad. Your once frenemy Lucifer's father? HIM. He's asked that you be there. So essentially, you're saying no to **God,** Dan."

She moves from sitting on her bed to the chair at her desk and pulls out her coloured pencils and some paper before slapping it on the surface. 

The school counsellor took her aside recently and helped her understand that she's frustrated and sad when she feels like this. And that when she does, she can always turn to her artwork, and so she does. She draws aliens and herself on Mars, even though she realizes that her childish dreams of being the first president of Mars are soooo three years ago.

But she doesn't see the harm in pretending, so she draws her mother first, a smile on instead of the tears that Trixie has gotten used to pretending not to notice. Then her Dad, his arms up in the air, cheering her on. She draws Maze because Maze was the first to take the dream seriously and can't imagine what life was like before she met Maze. She loves Maze and misses coming home to her every day. She doesn't understand how adults can be so hot and cold with each other. A few weeks ago, before Lucifer got back, Maze was spending almost every day with them.

"And you know what, Dan? I can't wait to watch you squirm because it's God Dan, and now that we are aaaaallll up to speed, I know you dated Lucifer's Mom, and so do you!" Before lowering her voice and harshly whispering, "because I'm petty, and you tried to kill my boyfriend."

Trixie had missed Lucifer, but it had been a long time since he and her Mom had been getting along. It seemed like ever since they left for Rome, her Mom had just been lost. So, when he left, and she could see just how upset that made her mother, she talked to Maze about it and found out exactly where he had gone. Maze doesn't ever speak to her like she's a child; Lucifer does.

Trixie finds herself drawing him, using red to create his glowing eyes. Trixie learned from her father and mother a long time ago you don't give up any information on anything unless someone asks you a direct question. Trixie has known precisely who Lucifer is and what that entails from the moment she met him. 

Sure, she has accepted she'll always be Urchin or offspring. But he doesn't push her away like he used to. She also knows that he praises her most when she's clever and conniving, which makes her feel great. He saved her from those scary men who showed up when she went to see him and Eve. She saw his eyes then, even with Eve desperately trying to hide her behind her skirts. She watched him throw them through the stained glass and pick them up like they were nothing. It made her feel safe. He and her mother saved her from Malcolm. He came into her life, saving her mother, and her mom told her that he left it doing the same thing. 

Lucifer never lies to her; everyone else in her life has. More than once.

Trixie also now knows what a hooker is.

"Trixie-babe?" 

Trixie turns around to see her mother standing in the door-jam.

"Time to pack up; I've got Ella coming to get you to go for a girl’s night."

"What? Come on."

"What's wrong with that? I thought you liked Ella?"

"I love Ella, but why can't I have dinner with you and the family?"

Chloe pauses for a moment, her left eye twitching slightly, but that's all her face betrays.

"Why would you wanna hang out with a bunch of boring old adults? Come on, Monkey, you're going to totally love this!"

"No! You're lying!"

Chloe squints her eyes at Trixie, and she can tell her mom is deducing right now, so she sits still while she assesses the situation.

Trixie watches as her mother's eyes fall on the drawing on the desk.

"This is really important to you, hey?" Chloe asks, sounding resigned.

Sometimes her mom doesn't talk to her like a child; That helps.

"Mom, I know you're worried. It's God. It's a big deal."

Her mother's eyes narrow again. 

"You're not that quiet, and even if you were. I figured it out pretty early. Maze and Lucifer have always told me the truth." 

Chloe removes herself from Trixie's door and heads over to her daughter's bed. Trixie turns in her chair so she can face her.

"Yeah, I guess that helps, hey Monkey? Having adults in your life who treat you like your not a little kid."

"Lucifer treats me like a little kid. Mom, he just never lies to me." Trixie looks back at her drawing. "He saves that for himself."

Chloe's eyes go wide.

"Well, that's definitely not a deduction a little kid would make, especially one so astute." And Trixie looks back to her mother, shrugging.

"We all have our moments. Can I ask you a question, Mom?"

"Anything, baby. You can always ask me about anything, and if I have made you feel like you can't, for however long, I'm really sorry about that."

"When did you start believing?" 

Trixie watches Chloe's eye twitch.

"Was it when you took us to Rome?"

Chloe's eyes fill up with tears, and she nods quietly.

"Was it because you were afraid?"

"So afraid, baby. Afraid for you, afraid for me. Afraid for Lucifer even."

Trixie nods and gets up from her chair, and moves over to the bed. Trixie knows if she tells her mom that she overheard that her dad tried to hurt Lucifer, it will break her heart. Sometimes adults forgot she was there. She knows it's not just her mom though, she and her friend Celine have been talking about it when they walk the school halls at recess. So instead of bringing up Dan, Trixie tries a different approach.

"Who... doesn't know?"

"Ella."

Trixie's shoulders drop. She knows how this conversation is going to end. Her mom is going to tell her that she needs to go for her safety. That angels and demons, while totally wicked-awesome, are also dangerous. And everyone is kind of mad at each other right now, and Lucifer really doesn't like his dad, and it's just not the place for an eleven-year-old mortal kid from Los Angeles. 

"Well, I'm going to tell you the truth then, Monkey. I'm still not entirely comfortable knowing about angels and demons, and God and the Devil are real. Monkey, don't you ever miss when it was just you and me?"

Trixie shakes her head; it's a lie. She does miss it, but she fears that if she admits to her mother, at this moment, that that information will be fodder for her mother to send her away. She needs this; she needs to see Maze and her dad, Lucifer, and Charlie. If her mom makes her go with Ella, she feels like it's her mother lying too. So, she lies.

Chloe looks slightly hurt by her lie, but she smiles sadly and nods. "Okay baby, I'll call Ella and you can stay."

  
~***~

* * *

Penny sometimes lies awake at night, remembering this lie. Now that loft is silent, and Lucifer's headed back to the Penthouse to make arrangements for her upcoming travels, Penny finds herself thinking about that day once more. As she rolls over to try once more to go to sleep, she twirls the ring she wears and sighs, biting her lip in a way that would remind most of her mother. As she drifts off, she can't help but let her guilt remind her, once more, that if she had not lied— if she had gone with Ella if things may have ended up differently. 


	3. Making Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vaeh tries to rationalize the new reality she's been exposed to. Penny (Trixie) reveals more of her upbringing before asking an important question.
> 
> _
> 
> "But, aren't you disappointed in me? You won't reprimand me? Punish me?"  
> Lucifer just shakes his head, "I think you've already punished yourself enough, don't you? Believe me child, the guilt you just displayed is concerning... Are you sure this is what you want to go to Hell over?"  
> Trixie huffs and smiles.   
> "Because I can make arrangements, I know a few demons who really enjoy playing me in the few instances I make an appearance."  
> "Shut up."

> **| NOW ||**

Vae awakens in her bedroom to the strange sound of muffled whimpers emanating from Penny's room. Scooting to the end of her mattress, she debates putting her glasses on before she places her feet on the floor, cautiously moving into the hall. She pushes her curls away from her face and presses her ear to the door with gentle care. 

"I'm sorry, mo..." Penny groans, inspiring Vaeh to open the door and shift inside the room. The room is aglow in the moonlight that peeks through the skylight, bathing Penny in its radiance. Her friend has kicked off her massive duvet, which does not surprise Vae in the slightest, even though today was the first day of winter. When they had made it home, the heat had already been set to seventy-five degrees, two degrees higher than Penny ordinarily kept it. Vae had assumed that must have been Lucifer's doing.

Penny's long limbs sprawled awkwardly towards the left of her bed, as though if she moves much more, she may fall. 

"Mom... me," Wisps of her hair are stuck to her face, brow furrowed, her limbs flailing once more as she tries to shake off whatever she's dreaming about.

"Hey," Vae tries softly, "Pen, it's okay." She crosses over to the left side of the bed and touches her shoulder. 

"Penny, it's just a nightma—" but Vae doesn't have an opportunity to finish the sentence, the movements so fast she scarcely processes what is happening. Vae has been flipped, slightly right of the middle of the mattress, Penny sitting on her, a knife to her throat. It feels like an eternity is sitting on her chest, Penny's eyes like two black gems glittering in the dark.

"You said you wouldn't do that again." Vae huffs, frustrated, a warmth settling in her cheeks as Penny exhales slowly and removes the curved dagger away from her jugular. "What happens when you start dating someone and you do this to them for the first time?"

"Simple," Penny groggily responds, tossing her blade on the night table and rolling off of Vae. "I don't date." 

They lay in Penny's bed, side by side, staring up at the constellations of stickers along with the ceiling, both catching their breath from the shock of the situation. 

"Want to talk about what you were dreaming about?" Vae asks hesitantly, her tone lilting up towards the end of the question.

"Not really." Penny whispers.

"Want to talk about how you're stepfather is, you know, the Devil?" Vae asks in the same voice. The curly brunette rolling over to view her friend in the darkness, observing how Penny's eyes are glimmering in the softness of the light. "I mean, we don't have to talk about the big stuff or the obvious. Just try telling me something small."

Penny exhales shakily and grabs her cigarettes beside her bed, sitting herself up towards the headboard. She looks hesitantly over towards Vaeh as though she is asking permission. Vae just shrugs. 

"Your room. I'm not here to judge."

Penny grabs the lighter, and the room is lit for a brief second before the head of her cigarette is the only other light source other than the stickers and moon that glow above them. Penny's eyes still glint as though they are full of unshed tears. Her cigarette burns brighter for a brief moment, as Penny inhales before letting all the tension in her shoulders out as she sighs.

"Something small..."

> **| THEN || FEBRUARY 17TH 2023**

"You can't get her a car for her birthday!" 

Trixie can overhear Chloe say as she begins to clear the dishes from the table. She has her earbuds in but isn't currently playing music and finds this is the easiest way to eavesdrop on her parent's conversations without raising any alarm. 

"I most certainly can, darling." Lucifer mocks from the chair beside the fire. "I mean, what is the point in us owning a home with a three-car garage if there aren't three cars filling it?" His lips curl upwards as he sips from the glass in his hand. For the briefest moments, he meets Trixie's eyes before winking, his leg crossed elegantly across his lap, resting his elbow against the leather armchair he likes to claim most nights after dinner. She's confident her mother will not see these stolen glances since she sits in the loveseat, with her back towards Trixie, who has been tasked with cleaning up the dining room/kitchen area. Despite herself, Trixie still enjoys spending time with all of them, so Tuesdays are always out of the question when her friends try to lure her away.

"Dan, help me out here. She's only going to be fifteen!" Chloe begs, pointing across the room to where he's sitting on a matching cream sofa, Lucifer to his left and Maze to his right, her feet curled up into his lap. Dan rubs them gently as she shares the last of the wine with Chloe. It's a level of domesticity that if you had asked anyone of them three years ago, they would have denied being able to achieve. 

"Actually, Chloe, I'm kind of with Lucifer on this one; we uh, we kind of already worked something out." 

Trixie steals a second glance, and did she just see her dad and Lucifer fist bump without even making eye contact? When did they get so in sync?

Trixie's heart leaps as she continues to remove the dishes from the table and place them in the dishwasher. 

_Please be the Spider, Please be the Spider..._ Trixie prays. Family dinners are a common occurrence in the new house, the one that she and her mom were apart of choosing— not that she's ever really cared. It had seemed to her that no matter where Lucifer took them, there was always room for her there. But everyone had made a ceremony of it of sorts, and after Dan and Maze had moved in together around the same time, it meant new compromises and transitions were happening in every part of her life. Still, it was quite common for the last year on weekend drop-offs for one set to spend the evening with the other, enjoying each other's company before heading back to her other home.

"Come on, Decker," Maze intervenes, "You've let me train her with knives. How much more dangerous could a car be?"

"Plus," Lucifer adds, standing and moving over to the loveseat that Chloe is occupying. "Daniel and I have made a pact—"

"A pact? Not a deal?" Chloe interrupts in a skeptical voice. From the kitchen, Trixie can't see her mother's face, but she imagines she's narrowing her eyes in a way that sometimes still sends shivers down Trixie's spine. 

"Nope," Lucifer responds, popping his the last consonant like he always does when gleeful. "A pact. Equal partnership. Ella will teach the Urchin, Daniel, and I how to take care of the vehicle as some sort of father-daughter bonding experience."

Chloe scoffs, "You dirty-rotten— You set me up. You knew if you got Dan on board, you make this about—"

But they continue to interrupt her, Dan first, "Chloe, you're always saying that we have to work harder to find ways to spend more time together—"

"Normal, I think she put it, Daniel? or was it, and I quote, "Less celestial drama-llama?"

"Exactly! Lucifer and I agree this is one of our better ideas, and he already owns the car—"

_Please be the Spider, Please, for the love of God... Did he choose the Spider? Sorry, Sir, I'm just excited... It's not an emergency; I'll use a different line... Amenadiel, did he choose the Spider?_

"So, we are going to split the cost of paying Ella for her time and the costs."

"Yeah, and while they do that," Maze pulls her feet out of Dan's lap so she can turn to Chloe beside her still in the loveseat, now crowded by Lucifer.

"You and I can spend time teaching her how to drive."

"Please, Chloe?" Lucifer adds, and Trixie almost drops the dish she's holding. _He played the name-card._

"Please, Chloe?" Maze and her Dad follow, and Trixie doesn't even pretend not to listen anymore as she watches them hone in for the kill.

"Please?"

"Alright! Alright..." Her mother concedes, and Beatrice imagines her rolling her eyes in a familiar way that everyone knows to not be taken too seriously. 

She puts the dish down on the counter and makes her way to the living room where her parents sit. Nervously, she looks between Dan's bright blue eyes to Lucifer's warm brown ones; both are beaming at her as she enters.

"Is it the Spider?" She barely squeaks out. She doesn't even know why she feels the need to ask. Trixie has never been subtle with Lucifer about her interest in the Alfa Romeo Spider, almost always choosing it when he allowed her to pick which car to drive if they happened to be going on an outing somewhere just the two of them. It rarely happens, but she's made sure it occurs enough to get her point across. Dan looks at Lucifer, allowing him to answer her on this rare occasion. "Well, I couldn't have you driving any old thing. Besides, this way, I know you can't bring the entire bloody neighbourhood of snot-nosed miscreants home with you." 

She squeals in delight and dives into her mother's lap, feeling her Dad, Lucifer and her Mother wrap their arms around her. She tucks her head under her mother's chin and closes her eyes.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" 

Trixie feels her phone buzz in her pocket, and she jumps out of her mom's lap to retrieve it.

Amenadiel |7:32 p.m.

I have no idea what you are talking about. Everything okay, Trix? Is this something I should mention to Linda?

"Sorry," Trixie says to her family before texting him back. 

Trix | 7:33 p.m.

Sorry! I'll explain later; enjoy the rest of your guys' vaycay! I'll see you next week when I babysit.

Putting her phone away, she jumps between Maze and her dad, leaning over to give Maze a hug.

"Will you teach me how to ride your motorcycle too?"

> **| NOW ||**

"Did she?" Vae asks, humour in her voice. 

"Oh yeah, but not for a few more years." Penny murmurs. She butts out her cigarette and lies back down in the bed, meeting Vae's eyes. 

"So, did you leave it back there?"

"Leave what?"

"This fancy vehicle that I'm going to have to look up later, so I fully grasp how cool this moment was for you."

"Oh, the Spider."

"Yeah, what happened to the Spider?"

"What happened to the Spider indeed..."

> **| THEN || SEPTEMBER 27TH 2023**

"Brakes Urchin, BRAKES... BRAKES BRAKES!!!" Is the last thing she hears before a sickening crunch can be heard throughout the entire vehicle. Trixie hears a slight ringing is happening in her ears, and it's drowning out the noise of the rest of the world. If she didn't know any better, she would think that Amenadiel was nearby using his power. 

"What the hell!" A strange man is yelling, but he sounds like he could be underwater? 

"I'm sorry," she murmurs, her eyes staring widely straight ahead, her knuckles unnaturally white against the wheel.

Lucifer is out of the vehicle now; she can see his back. Is he saying anything? The ringing in her ears goes away, and she can hear again, but black spots fill her vision. 

"... understandable, sir, but I assure you I can cover all the damages... twenty-five miles an..."

Her mother was going to kill her. She would probably hire Maze to do it. As a detective, she would know how to cover it up.

"So you think you can just pay me off? She was reckless!"

Trixie doesn't realize she's gasping for air. The back of her neck feels ticklish somehow, like a prickle against her skin. She's never going to be allowed to do anything again. She can already see the disappointment in her mother's eyes, those large pools of aqua blue that can freeze over with such ease. No more Sundays with Ella in the garage, and she just learned how to do her own oil change too. 

"...I'm sorry..."

"What the hell is she doing behind a wheel if she's going to kill somebody?"

"Yes, well, there's always next time," she hears Lucifer say, but she can't see him. Everything seems too bright all of a sudden. She feels cold and overheated at the same time.

"...My daughter appears to be in distress, so take the bloody card, name a price, and we'll be..."

Trixie feels something pull her back for a brief moment. Did Lucifer just call her his daughter? She had slipped up herself a few times and called him dad but...

"Urchin?" she hears, "Urchin, where does it hurt?"

"I'm sorry..." Trixie feels a cold chill run along her spine, and even though she can still make out shapes, most of the world has turned monochrome.

"I can't breathe. I can't. Lucifer?"

"Yes, darling, I'm right here," and she feels him take her hand; he's opened the car door and is turning her towards him. "I think I'm going to be—" and it's too late. Trixie would love to say that she would have avoided throwing up all over him if she could see him, which she could not, but that would have required her to know that she was going to throw up at all. The shame spiral she's feeling only gets worse as sweat drips from her brow.

"I'm sorry," she barely gets out. 

"Beatrice." He says softly, and her head snaps up to meets his eyes; he's not angry with her.

"Breathe. _Please_." 

She nods and sucks in a breath through her nose. 

"Breathe, tuck your head down. I'm right here. I'll keep you safe." He murmurs and rubs her back as she rests her heads against her knees.

"Lucifer I'm so sorry." She starts to cry.

"Darling, whatever for? For ruining a car, you loved more than I ever could? or for alarming me over your safety? Because in this moment, that's all I care about." 

She peers up from her knees to see squatting on the back of his heels, his hand still resting on her back.

"For throwing up all over you?"

"I'm afraid after young Charlie's arrival, I gave up on keeping a suit longer than six months in a suitable condition. Considering how often you're mother and father are placed in harm's way, and I've had to step— well," and he interrupts himself, trying not to add to her already overwhelmed state. 

"Come on then," he offers his hand, pulling her up from the vehicle, "might as well call someone to deal with this so we can get us both out of this," he looks down at himself, "unfortunate situation." 

"You're not mad at me?" Trixie shakes her head, looking up at him as she realizes how tired this whole situation has made her.

"Oh Urchin," Lucifer exhales, "It's just a thing. You're all that matters. Well, that and your mother." He squeezes her hand.

"But, aren't you disappointed in me? You won't reprimand me? Punish me?"

Lucifer just shakes his head, "I think you've already punished yourself enough, don't you? Believe me, child, the guilt you just displayed is concerning... Are you sure this is what you want to go to Hell over?"

Trixie huffs and smiles. 

"Because I can make arrangements, I know a few demons who really enjoy playing me in the few instances I make an appearance."

"Shut up."

"Well, you'll definitely not go for feeling guilty for being rude to your elders."

"Like you'd ever let that happen."

"Too true, my dear." He wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her close to whisper against her temple.

"I will never allow you or your mother entrance. Even if I have to fly you up to the Silver City myself." 

> **| NOW ||**

"I totalled it that same year." Penny sighs. "There was an incident; the incident may have caused the accident."

The moon has moved away from the skylight, the darkness entombing them with her glowing constellations. 

"Why do I feel that I'm only scratching the surface that is **you,** Penny?"

"Because I've done a lot to conceal my past from you, from everyone here." She whispers.

> **| THEN ||**

She and Lucifer sit there on the edge of the curb; he is a t-shirt, pink and ill-fitting, Trixie, in a matching smaller size. They are slowly working their way through the ice cream cones that they each hold as they watch a tow-truck finally pull the Spider away. 

"I've called for an Uber to take us home, it shouldn't be more than a few more minutes." He tells her in an even tone, but she can sense something else there.

"What's wrong?" She turns to him, searching his eyes. She wants to believe he isn't angry with her, but her fear is still lingering regardless of her ability to rationalize that he wouldn't lie to her.

"Are you absolutely certain you are not feeling unwell, Urchin? I feel it best to have you seen by a doctor."

"While I'm certain you could make that happen without waiting for hours in an emergency room." Trixie sighs, swiping more ice cream into her mouth. "I'm sure it's unnecessary; I think you were right. I'm pretty sure it was my guilt— why I panicked like that. I just get so worried about upsetting Mom, you know? It's like my Achilles heel."

"I see they've started you reading the classics at that awful school you choose to go to."

"I have to have some normalcy in my life. Public school isn't so bad when we can attend it. I certainly enjoy it better than distance learning while you all work all day." She leans her head onto his shoulder, realizing how tired this whole situation has made her. She feels his own head dip to rest on top of hers. She can feel as he hums against the contact. She revels at the moment, how far they have come. Trixie's sheer defiance at his constant complaints, before she truly understood consent as a child, seemed to wear him down. By the time she was old enough to realize that she had made him uncomfortable with her consistent ninja hugs, Lucifer had already stopped pushing her away at her constant affections.

"What are we going to tell Mom?" She asks him hesitantly.

"The truth, obviously." He responds, "No point in concealing it for any amount of time; your mother is a bloodhound. Admirable and deadly."

> **| NOW ||**

"And I don't want to do it anymore, at least with you. I tell the truth, but I know how to lie by omission," Penny speaks, taking Vaeh's hand in hers. "It gets lonesome up here in my head all the time."

"I thought we were getting you out of there little bit by little bit." Vaeh recounts. "I honestly thought I knew you. Sometimes a bit better than you know yourself."

"You do!" Penny encourages, squeezing the hand in hers. "You know me, the person I am. Just not the reasons _why_ I am the way I am. Which leads me to my next point. Lucifer came because I have to go home for Christmas."

Vae feels herself getting overheated; she blinks at Penny before she finds her voice; she tries to rationalize why she should even feel upset as Penny made it clear she did NOT want to go home for Christmas, meaning something must have happened. "That's in four days, Penny. When are you leaving? How is that even going to happen?"

"Arrangements are being made for a private plane to take me for tomorrow night."

Silence fills the room; Vae feels Penny rubbing the pad of her thumb against the back of her hand, the ring almost digging into her fingers. She wants to pull her hand back. Vaeh wants to push her unruly curls out of the way and sit up and be petty about the fact that she's being left— for the first time— all alone for the holidays. However, she's acutely aware of how impractical that would be. In less than ten hours, Vaeh has had celestial bombs dropped on her left, right and centre, and she imagines what that would have been like, growing up. She imagines Penny as a teen; did she have anyone else to talk to about these things? Other than all these immortals and adults in her life? She wants to ask, but instead, another thought crosses her mind.

"What were we chasing back there, Penny?"

The room is silent, and she can feel as Penny searches for the right words. 

"Remember when I said the assignment had changed? Well, it seems it's beyond my scope as well, and someone more experienced is coming to deal with the situation."

"That still doesn't answer my question."

"It was a demon possession Vaeh, but not just any demon possession. I've dealt with a few in my time. This, this is different."

"Is he going to hurt anyone? Anyone that you could help?"

"No. That's why I've been taken off this. This is a catch and release, but he needs to be transported all the way back to L.A." Penny pauses, taking a breath. "Lucifer feels," and her teeth around his name, "That only Maze can contain him for that long."

"Who is Maze?"

"Maze is my stepmother." 

"And what makes Maze better equipped to deal with a demon than you or Lucifer?" Vaeh's amber eyes narrowing, trying to grasp at all the moving parts in this new reality she's expected to learn and learn quickly.

"Maze is better equipped because she used to be Lucifer's bodyguard in Hell. Maze..." Penny hesitates, "is also a demon. The jet that picks me up will be dropping her off; she will be staying here while hunting and returning to L.A. as soon as she can."

"And what about me?" Vaeh asks, slightly perturbed. Flashes of a snarling demon woman sharing their apartment with her during her first Holidays alone worm their way into her thoughts.

"Well, I was going to ask you to come with me."

They lay there in silence, their hands still joined, both staring up at the star map above them. As Vae traces her way from Ursa Major to Draco, she realizes her original thoughts of how they got up there seem to fade away. Now all she can imagine is Lucifer wings out, jumping upwards to place each individual star before floating gently to the ground.

"So... your Stepfather is Satan. Your stepmother is a demon, and we are going to your families for Christmas?"

"That is if you are willing to come with me?" Penny questions, her voice small. 

"What and miss this?"


	4. Deliverance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penny/Trixie and Vaeh pack and head for L.A. Penny/Trixie explains why she has to return home for Christmas. 
> 
> ~***~  
>    
> "Beatrice!"
> 
> She kicks it with all she has, hoping to knock it off its feet so she can retrieve the blade and try again. It stumbles backwards, only to tumble onto a fallen log, a branch piercing through him from behind, pointing towards her like an accusatory finger, blood dripping from the sharpest point. 
> 
> "I'm calling Lucifer right now."
> 
> Penny rushes over towards her phone on the ground, her eyes never leaving the sight before her. The being twitches and exhales the life slowly draining from it's face. 
> 
> "Maze, I thought you said that vampires don't exist."
> 
> ~***~
> 
> END CHAPTER SUMMARY

> **|NOW|| DECEMBER 21ST 2028**

Penny sips at her cup second cup of expresso as she looks at the materials laid out on her bed. Files, knives, clothing, books, toiletries, her laptop, passport, bikini, and shoes all lay carefully organized around a black leather duffle bag. As she tries to play Tetris, she sips it again before slamming the whole thing back. 

"VaeVae?" She calls out, one eyebrow lifted slightly higher than its counterpart; Penny's been carrying the tension of the last twenty-four hours in her shoulders She tries to calculate the probability of fitting it all within it's tinier counterparts. Flashes of Mary Poppin's carpetbag and the Doctor's TARDIS flash through her mind before she shouts once more. "How's your packing coming?" 

"Not great," Penny hears from the other room, muffled in a way that Penny deduces Vaeh is rummaging around her closet. 

She places her expresso down and tries walking around the bed to look at it from a different angle before she hears the footfalls of her roommate coming closer. 

As Vae comes up behind her, the shorter woman places an arm around her shoulder casually. Vaeh's other hand goes to her hip as she surveys the scene ahead of them. "I have room for maybe your laptop and some of your clothes, but you couldn't pay me to carry any of your weapons." 

Penny wonders if she should bother telling Vaeh that she never had any intention of getting her to carry her precious metals, or if she should just thank her for her assistance instead before the shorter brunette runs her alabaster fingers through her curls and moves closer to the bed. She grabs some of the items before stopping at the bikini. 

"I… I don't have a swimsuit. Do we need a swimsuit?" She turns, giving Penny a concerned look, clothing piled in her arms. Penny shakes her head no as she shrugs. "We have hot tubs; I imagine that will be offered. You don't need a bathing suit, wear your underwear or a t-shirt, or whatever you want. Or don't go in at all. Your choice, either way." 

"PigPen, what can I do to help? You seem like you're spiralling." And she pulls on her onyx-eyed roommate's hand until they find a small spot on the king-sized bed for them to sit down. 

Penny exhales shakily and finds herself looking at the clock. Four o'clock. They need to be at the airstrip in the next three hours. 

"I'm not great with transitions. I used to be, I mean, obviously, I had to be. That was the nature of things, in constant flux. My parents were both detectives from as far back as I can remember, then Lucifer and Maze came into our lives. Followed by Linda and Amenadiel, and— The point is… As soon as the door was opened to the divine, it didn't stop. My mom had always been so concerned when Maze trained me. Arnis, Krav Maga, Paranza Corta, jiu-jitsu, always. Always training." Penny places her face in her hands. "I loved it. I'm still grateful. It took using my training to realize I don't want to HAVE to."

> **|THEN|| 12: 24 a.m. MAY 22ND 2027**

Penny is on the phone with Maze as she continues her pursuit of one of her own targets. A few women have been found dead in this area of the park over the last few weeks, all with their throats torn out. Neighbourhood rumours were circling wolves or wild dogs lurking, yet Penny was concerned it could be so much more. 

"All I'm saying is that I'd prefer he'd get with the program and call me Penelope or Penny."

"Well, your Dad sees it as how we originally discussed it; it's a disguise." Maze defends, and it sounds like she's eating something crunchy while talking to her. 

"Are you eating cereal right now?"

"Your Dad is on a stake-out and won't let me come. So, I'm eating my feelings. You still doing okay there, Munchkin?"

"Yeah, well, calling me Penny helps me stay focused on what I'm here to do." She tells Maze as she senses the air around her change. It almost feels alive against her skin, and she realizes she's wandered off the path and is here alone at night in Central Park. 

"Are you sure that's it?" Maze slurps loudly in her ear.

"What is that suppose to mean?" She hears Maze swallow.

"Pen, you know you can tell me anything. I tell you everything." 

"Sometimes, too much."

"I try to respect your boundaries about your father's and my se—"

"Maze!"

"Right. Well, this is me communicating! Isn't that what Linda, your father, and even your mother wanted?"

"You don't have to do everything my mom tells you." Penny murmurs. A flight of pigeons passes over her head. The birds are moving away from the bottomless abyss of black that has appeared in front of her, surrounded by trees. She can hear Maze sigh before she says, "You sound like Lucifer right now." 

It all happens so fast, a body lunging towards her as she pulls her blade from behind her back and tosses the phone to the ground.

"Hurtful!" She yells to Maze as she rolls with the body above her, using the momentum to flip it on it's back. Black cesspools lacking any white seem to stare back at her, its mouth agape in a nasty snarl, fangs covered in blood snapping upwards at her.

"Pen?"

She drives the knife deep into the monster's chest, black blood oozing out of the hole as she pulls it out and backs up off the body.

"Penelope?"

The demon (If that's what she can call it, she's never seen anything like this before) lunges at her once more, claws outstretched towards her, its mouth stretched unnaturally wide. She lets it come close so she can parry and twirl using the knife to slice through its throat; the sound is nothing like what she had imagined. Film and television had made it seem like you could hear it go through as though it was clean, but instead, it was mostly the soft wet sounds of squishing and gargling. Penny's knife gets stuck on his spine and pulls out of her hand as it moves away from her.

Still, the demon didn't go down.

"Beatrice!"

She kicks it with all she has, hoping to knock it off its feet so she can retrieve the blade and try again. It stumbles backwards, only to tumble onto a fallen log, a branch piercing through him from behind, pointing towards her like an accusatory finger, blood dripping from the sharpest point. 

"I'm calling Lucifer right now."

Penny rushes over towards her phone on the ground, her eyes never leaving the sight before her. The being twitches and exhales, the life slowly draining from its face. 

"Maze, I thought you said that vampires don't exist."

"They don't exist." Maze states with a petulance that causes Penny to roll her eyes.

"Then why did this asshole just try to bite my neck?"

"Could be a demon," Maze ruminates. 

"With massive fucking fangs?!"

"What's massive to you might not be massive to me."

"Four-inch fangs in a humanoid face. Black eyes. I kicked him on top of a fallen log, and that seemed to have…"

"Are you okay? What can I do? Do I need to call Lucifer?" Maze asks, hesitation lurking within her tone. 

Penny continues to stare at the creature in front of her; its face is slack with death, its eyes closed, it looks almost peaceful, innocent. 

"No… No, it's okay. I know that's the last thing you want to do."

Lucifer had not been functioning well lately and blamed some of his spiral on her Dad and Maze. Without her, Mom, and Amenadiel there, he seemed to be coming unglued. Still, it wasn't like she hadn't seen him go into a tailspin before.

"Regardless of whatever issues we have, we'd always put you first, all of us." Maze lays in heavily to the last three words, making sure that Penny knows she means them. 

"I know," She sighs, watching as the body slumps lower and lower down, sagging deeper onto the branch. "That's sometimes part of the problem, though, isn't it?"

"I don't think any of us see it that way, Penelope."

"Is that Trixie?" She hears on the other line of the phone, Dan's voice ringing out. 

"Dad just get home?"

"How can you guess?"

"Don't tell him about this. Tell him I had to go." 

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"It was just a rush is all, my first kill. Usually, I just send them back to hell. The body is usually already dead."

"I understand. But if you won't let me send help, I will be calling you later."

"I understand."

Penelope hangs up the phone and looks down at the dead body lying in front of her and wonders if she should bother to take the time to dig it a grave. Looking down at her feet, she realizes that the blood is dangerously close to touching her sneaker and realizes touching the body would not be wise. All they'd have so far is possible shoe size. Tears begin to form in her eyes, and she holds herself as she moves out of the treeline and back onto a path in the park. She's finally gotten what she's always wanted. Responsibility and the ability to be able to be independent from the overbearing adults in her life. 

So why was she so lonely?

> **|NOW||**

Now in a private vehicle driving them through traffic towards JFK International. Penny looks over at Vaeh beside her, listening intently to her story. 

"After that, I started putting out ads for a roommate, just so I interacted with others, had some type of tie to humanity. I was beginning to give up hope until you answered."

"Vampires exist?" 

"That's the takeaway from this?" Penny's brow furrows in consternation. 

"You can't just drop bombs on me like 'my stepdad is the devil,' 'a demon trained me in combat' and 'vampires exist,' and not expect me to have questions!"

"No, I suppose not." Penny murmurs, sad that things have gotten to this point. A point that a figurative dam has been broken, and a sea of new experiences will continue to wash forth over their relationship. She remembers when her mother had been the one to navigate its rapids, trying to choose what was best for Penny herself to know firsthand, or later in private conversations that were planned and bordering on awkward. But she had been there before, and now… now to be on the same side as Maze, in the same spot as Lucifer. She feels her heart begin to ache. 

"But I'm not above understanding," Vae begins, "what you're telling me. Although I don't know if I can take it as a compliment. I'm like Watson to your Sherlock, Garfunkel to your Simon, Morty to your Rick, I'm the…"

"Stable one?"

"I was going to say boring. So BORING. I sit around reading Diablo fanfiction—"

"Damn it, TMI Nevaeh," Penny exclaims, her face wrinkling in distaste. 

"Exactly, Penny. I mean, all I do is sit around working on my art, schoolwork, and developing my world-building for my passion project. Outside of that, work, and you, plus Rose and David from school." 

"And I loved it." Penny interrupts, trying to reassure her. "It was good. I could work and spend weekends with you watching movies and be a dork. You introduced me to your friends, and I truly started to feel like I could make this work, my life. I even went to those classes."

"You started improv because of me? That's also not a compliment Penny."

"Actually, no, not _everything_ is about you, Vae. I was saying that having you as a friend made me realize that having some stability is essential. I mean we play boardgames together, do you have any idea what that means to me? And now, going back, I'm worried." 

Their vehicle pulls up along a private runway, coming to a halt. The driver comes around to the door and opens it for Penny. Vaeh nods and gets out as well, going for the back of the vehicle to grab their luggage. The women make their way towards the aircraft waiting for them. 

> **|THEN|| 7:47 P.M. FEBRUARY 23RD 2021**

"Lucifer," Trixie whispers, trying to get his attention. He's playing on his phone while her mom is in the bathroom, and they atr waiting for her return so that she can make her move. They're playing an old copy of Settlers of Catan that her mother has had for as long as she can remember. 

Trixie is currently winning.

He looks up at her from his phone and smiles briefly at her, putting it down and sitting up straight.

"Yes, Offspring?" He asks her softly, giving her his undivided attention. 

"Now that God has gone back to the Silver City, does that mean... Does that mean that you're here to stay?"

"I can only hope so, my dear, as long as your mother shall have me." He offers, tenderly blinking at her before leaning in, "I've been contemplating proposing a holiday to celebrate the occasion."

"That would be nice! We haven't done anything since…" and Beatrice stops herself, but it's too late. She sees a flash of hesitation across his eyes, and his smile tightens. 

Since Greece, they both know she was about to say. She doesn't know if her mother and Lucifer have talked about the month they spent away almost two years ago, but she knows it's a sore spot that she's not ready to push.

"Where were you thinking?" she blurts out, trying to bring him out of his head. 

"I'm still unsure. I thought perhaps somewhere you also would enjoy, perhaps New York? Or London. Both have suitable attractions for someone of your stature," before he looks up towards the apartment stairs, anticipating Chloe's return, "As well as your mother's."

"She likes musicals," Trixie whispers to him.

"What?" Lucifer scoffs, looking back at Trixie with an incredulous look.

She nods; her eyes are wide and pleased.

"Phantom of the Opera is her favourite." Trixie giggles. 

Lucifer rolls his eyes dramatically, chuckling with Trixie as Chloe makes her way down the stairs. "Of course, she would like that pompous old windbag Lloyd-Webber."

"What are you two conspiring about?!" Chloe calls down the stairs as she comes galloping down two at a time back towards the coffee table in the modest apartment.

"What makes you assume we are conspiring about anything?" Lucifer asks, appearing hurt by her inference.

"Yeah, Mom?" Trixie leans into the act, hoping that she can learn a thing or two from Lucifer now.

"Because it's been too quiet, and if I've learned anything as your mom." Chloe retorts, tucking her blonde locks behind her ear. "It's that silence + time = something I should be concerned about."

She sits on her heels in front of the board, looking at what her next move will be. She picks up her cards and looks at Trixie with a knowing smirk, her brow lifted in question before looking at Lucifer.

"So, what are you two up to?"

"Just discussing music." Lucifer murmurs, a sly smile dances across his lips as he picks up his cards.

Trixie nods.

"You know, the music of the night."

Chloe looks at him, confused, "Like what you play at Lux?" 

"Probably not."

Chloe shakes her head, and Trixie gives him a look bordering on murder before she looks down at her cards and starts to remember what her next move was going to be before this conversation began. 

Her mother is focused on the cards in front of her now, but Beatrice can tell that Lucifer's focus has altered, his body language changing as he can barely contain himself. His eyes are alight in merriment, and Trixie would describe him as almost gleeful.

Chloe rolls the dice, and eights come up, meaning Trixie and Lucifer get to pull from the resource piles. 

"Want to trade wheat for brick Lucifer?"

He holds the card out to her, and before he releases it, he closes his other hand around hers. 

"Slowly, gently." He speaks the song's line but keeps the rhythm, and Trixie thinks she may die of laughter or shame, or both.

Chloe narrows her eyes at him suspiciously before looking over to Trixie, a blush crawling up her face.

Her eyes pop wide as she meets her mother's gaze.

"What is up with him tonight? What about you, Monkey? Wheat for a brick?" 

She nods her head, guilt creeping up her neck in embarrassment for her mom. "Sure, Momma." She breathes out, trading off. Chloe then pays the bank to buy a development card. Squealing in delight, she plays the Monopoly card and calls out for wheat again. 

Lucifer sighs heavily and hands her more wheat. "Grasp it, sense it," and then he drops all the cards in his hands and snakes his arm around Chloe's waist before belting out, "tremulous and tender!"

Several of the next actions all happen simultaneously as Trixie process what she witnesses before her. Lucifer presses his hand on Chloe's cheek as he continues to sing, "Turn your face away! From the garish—"

As Chloe's eyes go wide as the colour drains from her, her cheeks becoming rosy as she stares down Trixie, "you little security breach!" But the shock doesn't last long as Lucifer buries his face in her mother's neck, and her mother squirms and squeals in delighted giggles. 

'—light of day! Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling liiiiiiiight…"

Trix has always known her mother was ticklish there. It pleases her to know that Lucifer knows how to torture her mom now, too, for all the times Chloe has won tickle fights. 

"Get her legs Urchin!" He yells to her before continuing. 

"TRIXIE DON'T YOU DARE. REMEMBER HE CAN'T PROTECT YOU 24/7!"

"Yes, I bloody well can. Have I ever lied to you, Offspring? Now's your chance!"

Trixie tenses and extends her fingers under her mother's horrified gaze, slowly creeping up towards them.

"Beatrice Penelope Jane Espinoza!" Chloe voices desperately and as seriously as possible as anyone can be while trapped in a tickle/wrestling position. Lucifer looks up from her neck, up at Trixie, his hair tousled and falling into his eyes; he's half laying on Chloe, his arms resting on her shoulders. Both adults look happier than she's seen either of them in as long as she can remember.

"She's just throwing you off your game, my shrewd little human. You've got this!" He encourages.

Beatrice stands tall, lifting her chin and one of her tickling hands into the air as she begins to sing, 

"And, listen to the music…. Of the niiiiiight." In a duet together, she and Lucifer sing the last line, Trixie finishing with a flourish before pouncing on her mother in a fit of giggles.

> **|NOW||**

Once inside, Vaeh gasps at the interior of the plane. Cream leather with cherry wood panelling lines the inside, and in her mind, it seems too decadent for her to have ever experienced in her life. 

She nudges Penny in the ribs with her elbow, "Family Jet?" she jokes to her roommate.

"Yeah, pretty much," Penny responds absent-mindedly, and Vae's face falls. 

These were the moments that Vaeh was talking about. The ones that she had assumed were apart of Penny's life initially. Not all this biblical bullshit. Vaeh finds a seat to sit, and looks over to her friend, watching her face intently. Penny has been increasingly more and more frazzled; the closer they get to L.A. with an almost six-hour flight ahead of them, she plans to get to the bottom of what is causing her this much distress. 

They find a spot to sit each, close to each other, but not as close as they would be if they were flying economy, and Vae tries to wait patiently for Penny to tell her more about what awaits them on the other side of the country, but at her own pace. 

They both buckle their belts and sit waiting for the Jet to take off. Vaeh slowly inhales through her nose and exhales through her mouth, shakily. She continues to slowly breathe in and out, trying to hold her composure.

“Are you…” Penny hesitantly inquires, trying to meet her gaze, “afraid of flying?”

Vaeh nods, gulping air down and meets the eyes of her friend. Penny smiles hesitantly and reaches for Vaeh’s hand.

“Why come then?”

Vaeh rolls her eyes, squeezing Penny’s hand as the Jet lurches forward in a swift motion. She holds Penny’s hand tightly as they lift from the runway, and her stomach feels like it’s falling out of her. Vaeh leans forward and puts her head close to her knees as they continue to lift off, sweat gathering on her brow.

“Still, you could have told me,” Penny tells her, leaning forward and placing her other hand on Vae’s back, rubbing gentle circles on it.

“Penny, if you’re so upset about going home, why are we doing so?” Vaeh asks haggardly. She knows that she’s pushing, but she also knows that Penny will understand that she needs to think about anything other than how her stomach feels right now.

If the question ever catches her companion off-guard, she doesn’t hesitate the soft motion of her hand against her back. Instead, she sighs long and luxurious, loud enough that Vaeh can hear it above the engines.

> **|THEN|| 12:21 a.m. FEBRUARY 23RD 2021**

Trixie wakes up from dreams where she constantly needs to go to the washroom, never finding any relief and realizes she needs to go. She hesitates, sometimes hating that the apartments only bathroom is upstairs across from her mother's room, but another pang from her bladder causes her to touch her barefeet to the surface of the floor to make her trek to the second floor. She tries to be quiet to not disturb her mother and Lucifer as she slowly creeps up the stairs. 

Her mother's door is closed opposite the bathroom, and as she tries to be quiet, she can hear the faint soft sounds of her mother's giggles emanating from inside. 

Lucifer's singing voice carries through the door, "Let your fantasies unwind. In this darkness, which you _know_ , you can not fight…" 

Trixie closes the door to the washroom and shakes her head, realizing she would rather not hear more. After flushing the toilet and washing her hands, she exits the bathroom and turns of the light, her mother's room now suspiciously quiet. 

"Goodnight, Monkey," She hears her mom call to her from behind the door, firm but loving. 

"Goodnight, Mom. Goodnight, Lucifer," Trixie calls out and makes her way back to her room. 

> **|NOW||**

Vaeh turns her head and peers back at Penny, who is biting her bottom lip and staring off out the window as the city turns to just lights below them.

"Well?" Vaeh prods again.

“Because my mother is coming home to visit.”


	5. Exchange

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> God nods. "Sounds like Chloe Decker is a smart and caring mother, one you love very much."
> 
> It's Trixie's turn to nod.
> 
> "Otherwise, you would not be here, prepared to give an apology you do not believe in," and He cannot help but smile when she narrows her eyes at him before folding her arms.
> 
> ~ *** ~  
> A chapter full of THEN's.  
> We get to see some events and details from Chloe's perspective, and find out more about the infamous food fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A power outage corrupted my master copy of my rough draft so I have now gone back to writing. Sometimes it takes a few days to get over it, and so I admit updates will most likely be more weekly now than bi-weekly.

> **THEN || 11:46 P.M. FEBRUARY 13 TH 2021**

When Chloe Jane Decker was a young girl, she lamented that she had extraordinarily little control over her life. John Decker, assiduous and resilient, would work late into the evenings, many a night, Chloe would go to bed and fall asleep waiting to hear the front door open and latch shut. Her mother, a modest star in her own right, would parade her from audition to audition, some for Chloe herself, most for Penelope. Chloe spent most of her life learning from on-set tutors, following set protocol, and fantasizing about parts that she would audition for if her mother weren't a momager.

Not that she had felt that Penelope was a monster, it wasn't like she fantasized about emancipation. But as she got older and grew into herself, she found that her mother seemed to want her to audition for roles that she, herself, wished she were still young enough to be cast in. It was merely the feeling one gets when they feel trapped, trapped at the whims of a higher power, in this case, her parents, moulding her to be what they had deemed her future. She longed to prove to the world that paths were better when forged, through the same type of hard work and strong character that she knew both her parents possessed.

So, when she received the callback for her leading role in Hot Tub Highschool, she felt a high she had never felt before. A part that Chloe had landed on her own, without the help of her mother, much to Penelope's dismay, and to the delight of one John Decker.

"It has nudity in it." She warned him, "just topless Daddy, it's… it's a deal breaker for them. Mom told me to not fight it since I'm not established yet."

"I'll close my eyes," he reassured, squeezing her shoulder.

It was her father who was her most ardent fan. Praising her for her passion to become a star in her own right. Because that was what she wanted, right? To be a real star? They had many conversations about what she wanted to do after the film. Every morning, he dropped her off on set, usually having just come off the night shift. There was more than one time Chloe would run out to his cruiser, hop in and have her father hand her an egg-in-a-basket-grill-cheese-on-Hawaiian-bread sandwich (which had become lovingly referred to as the 'Decker Special').

Less than a year after their morning ritual ceased, so did John Decker.

Chloe had been with her mother when they received the news, and it wasn't until she realized that her father would never be coming home again that she understood that the deep gnawing at her heart was a degree of grief that she had never experienced in her very sheltered existence. A grief that she knew would stay with her until her dying breath.

The story was simple enough. Her father had been at the little market a few blocks from the precinct—the one where he would get the Decker Special. The robber, Joe Fields, had come in and had been spooked by the sight of her father's uniform. It was enough to shoot him out of fear. It had been stated over and over, like a sad song on repeat. Even Joe Field's confession had said as much.

And yet.

And yet, that explanation had never sat easily with Chloe. Like an itch that needed to be scratched, a deep yearning that was not be satiated, she felt a pull. John's influence over the years on Chloe meant that she possessed keen deduction skills. Questions pulsed along a thread in the back of her mind, questions like had Joe Fields had really shot her father at point-blank merely because he was in uniform? Does that mean the general public was terrified of the LAPD that much? That they shot without thinking? How had gun violence escalated to this point? Why was her Dad there? For him? She had seen him leave with leftovers she brought home from an afterparty.

If her father had been there because he was picking her up a Decker Special as a treat…

Chloe pushed the sense of remorse and deeply felt guilt down farther within her. And so, at the tender age of nineteen, on the precipice of a stardom that her own mother craved, Chloe turned in manicures and audition tapes for placement in the Los Angels Police Academy.

While attending, she would take lunches in the Elysian Park complex, at first having private moments of reflection and praying to God. Nothing as simple as 'why me?' but she would instead contemplate right from wrong, what evil truly meant, how justice and punishment were two entirely different things.

Chloe would try being open to it, at the request of the grief group she was required to attend after punching that pap in the face. She would try different questions or sometimes make observations, and yet Chloe could never feel him with her, never felt as though her questions were heard, let alone answered. She tried to mix faith with logic. Perhaps if God was too busy, praying or feeling a connection to her father might work instead. So she would tell him about Penelope, about how lonely it was going through the academy, her struggles to escape the tainted fame that followed her from media to her new life.

And still, she felt nothing.

It was in the Elysian Park complex where Chloe realized she did not believe in Heaven and Hell, in eternal life, or him anymore. Or maybe she had never believed in him at all. Where Chloe resolved, she would never see her father again and that if she continued down this new path, forged in his memory, that she would do everything in her power to prove that chaos did not control her. From this moment on, every step would be carefully examined, all options would be weighed, her path carefully planned.

When Chloe Decker was a rookie, she spent night shifts at the front desk watching as suspects, perps, and victims came and went with such a revolving door that sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. Victims sometimes treated her worse than the criminals being booked, spitting at her, or tearing her down as some form of finding solace. Sometimes the precinct would be so busy that petty criminals would be close enough to her to make idle conversation, which she indulged at first because she thought it would be good practice.

 _Being on the front desk is good training,_ the Sergeant would tell her. _It teaches you how to be less empathetic and more objective._

It wasn't like she disagreed. She could see the older, albeit more jaded, man's logic. Nevertheless, the more time she spent upfront getting to know suspects, criminals, victims, and family member's of violent crimes, she noticed how lines began to blur, and she saw that every one of them (for the most part, after all, dangerous criminals were not left near the front of the precinct) were inherently human. Many of them just made stupid mistakes, and that judgment wasn't based solely on those waiting in cuffs. And every time a family member of a homicide victim came in asking for more information on a case, usually gone cold, her heart broke a little inside. If you were to ask her, Chloe wouldn't be able to tell you when she had decided what she wanted. She would struggle to find words about how she knew she would genuinely make a difference, but she could say with Decker confidence that it was before Dan ever proposed to her that she knew what she wanted, what she planned for. She knew that she was different than her father in this instance. Becoming a detective was all she could think about.

For Chloe, no detail was too small to be ignored. Every decision could refract into many different possibilities. As she could attest better than most, humans are not infallible, but the urge to always, always to do good, be better, weighed on her heart. She worked with suspects and convicts to create balance, to show that policing wasn't meant to abuse power. She reacted with as much grace and civility as she could when she was spat on or told that she was a pig. When Dan casually asked if she planned to take his name, it took her two weeks to respond. Chloe explained the logical reasons why it was easier for them to be differentiated between at the precinct. After the logic came her emotional reasons, that while she would love to escape the fame that came with the name Chloe Decker, it was one of the only things she had left of her father. He nodded in understanding because regardless of what anyone said about him, Dan was an understanding man who she loved.

After they married, Chloe would spend nights awake rubbing her stomach idly, thinking of Dan working the graveyard shift, a newly minted detective. Chloe would reflect on the world that they would leave their unborn daughter, Beatrice. As always, everything had been agreed upon and compromised down to the very last detail, including her name.

It wasn't chaos that was the breaking point in Chloe's and Dan's marriage. She had clearly explained to both Dan and Penelope the issues she took with their relationship. He didn't support her inquiry about Palmetto at work. He seemed to care more about what the precinct thought of him than their marriage. His cases always took priority. He was annoyed that her solving rate was on par with his in her first year. He didn't make time for them to just be them. Time for Trixie. Time where they were not talking work.

The night that she got a call from her mother, trapped in the back of a hot, sweaty van, informing the daycare had called _her_ as an emergency contact since Dan had missed pick up, was the night she knew she was done.

Chloe did not invite chaos into her life. She would not invite it into Trixie's. She went directly to her mother's after work and had been living there ever since. Chloe worked every moment of every day to make sure she would never be caught off guard by the chaos of the universe.

Enter Lucifer Morningstar.

Chloe would be remiss to declare that she hadn't been attracted to him early on. He seemed to be everything she was not, and to make matters worse, it WORKED for him. Dark features striking and classic, in the beginning, nothing about him screamed darkness, but instead, he seemed like a beacon of pure energy, of light and fun. Women and men seemed drawn to him, but it reminded her of insects. She was sure he thought of them as insects. She was convinced that as soon as she let his Chaos seep into her life, she would never be able to go back to the orderly and careful creature that she had cultivated herself to be.

She would go on to tell Lucifer he was repulsive when what she found repugnant was her own interest in him and his behaviour towards everyone she'd seen him interact with, but not her. Sure, he was still wildly inappropriate, but there was something in how he _looked_ at her. How he _obeyed_ her.

Lucifer, stay.  
Lucifer, sit down.  
Lucifer, stop it. 

  
It sent shivers up her spine.

She would lay awake early in their partnership, trying to figure it out.

She found herself slipping into old habits and asking God, why her? Why did Lucifer seem so interested in a b-list fallen star who happened to now work one of the most dangerous jobs in the country while juggling being a single mother?

He had money.  
He had people who clearly didn't make him work as hard for it.  
It was apparent to her he didn't like anything that seemed too complicated.

And it couldn't be because he'd seen her boobies once.  
Twice.  
Three times, within the first year of being partners.  
  


When he had been rewarded and made an official consultant, being partnered with her at a time when her own ex didn't even want to associate with her at work, she accepted the compromise and told herself that she could continue to forge her own way ahead, Lucifer be damned.

Until she couldn't.

Lucifer's brand of chaos had made Chloe better. It got her out of her head, allowing Chloe to think outside the box on cases that either went dead, or worse, didn't make sense. She would watch as other detectives arrest rates get higher, but once they went to trial, there would be circumstantial evidence.

Violence back on the street.

Day in and day out, she would see the worst of the worst, and as they grew closer, Lucifer would show her that justice was her end goal in every case, not condemnation, that not everything was black and white. That there was a whole spectrum of shades of grey, their personal relationship fitting into that area. Until it didn't.

Until they couldn't.

Chloe would like to believe that at this point in their incredibly complicated, borderline obsessive, increasingly devoted relationship, that she would be used to this level of chaos, but as she holds herself tightly and looks between all the angelic siblings before her; first to Amenadiel, next to Michael before Lucifer. The three brother's faces appear to be just as shocked as she feels.

"Is that it?" she hears her own voice say. "Is that really it?"

Chloe tries to get Lucifer to meet her gaze. Her intensity is not the only thing that is contributing to the thick atmosphere of the room. When he continues to ignore her, she meets Linda's knowing look. Both Ella and she are there as well. The brothers seem to be staring at each other instead of their human counterparts, and if she didn't know any better, she would wonder if they were communicating telepathically. Chloe wishes that Maze was here for the briefest of moments, a selfish moment, really, since Maze is off doing far more important work that they had secretly agreed upon. Still, this is where Maze would shine with comments about how the almighty was a real piece of work or that they were all being a bunch of babies, anything to break up the apparent shock amongst the six of them.

After all, Charlie doesn't seem too worried that his Grandfather just left in a flurry of light.

"Bit anti-climactic, wouldn't you agree?" Lucifer murmurs more to himself than the rest of the group.

"You guys, we're looking a gift horse in the mouth." Ella chimes in, sounding like she's riding a manic wave of happiness. "We came here to ask for a possible extension, like twenty-four hours at the very least, and now we have one indefinitely!"

"For now, Lopez." Michael turns to her. "He said, 'now is not the right time.' Meaning…" and with his better arm, he holds his hand upwards in a gesture of confusion.

Amenadiel nods, a grimace adorning his face. "Father made it clear that nothing we had offered could change His mind, not even His own grandson. It's hard not to wonder what could have happened."

Chloe knows Lucifer can feel her boring a hole through him with her intense stare. She watches as his jaw twitches as he gently grinds his teeth, his posture so impossibly ridged. So many years of _feeling_ each other's emotional energy so acutely, she knows it means he's deliberately avoiding her.

Chloe is a sensible person. She is currently trying to deduce what could have possibly changed their Father's position, and only one event keeps coming to mind.

As a detective, she learned a long while ago that correlation is different than causation. Ever since she asked Amenadiel if he was her father, she's feared being more critical in the grand scheme of the universe than just 'the detective,' the one who was meant to see Lucifer for the person he really was. When she had broken up with him a few months ago, she felt more than ever that _that_ had indeed been the gift. At the time, she was thankful for the ability to compartmentalize once more.  
  
Sometimes love wasn't enough.

She figured Linda could tell when they showed up together that they had moved past it. After all, when Revelations is upon you, you sometimes forgive and move on just so you can feel happy in the present instead of worrying about how you're going to ruin it in the future.

She had been so sure that when Dan had picked up Trixie yesterday, that would be the last time she saw her daughter, and she had wanted so badly to tell Dan, no, to beg him to let her stay with her for the weekend. She was even tempted to ask if she could join them but knew better. Dan was still blissfully oblivious to the great lie (what the tribe had lovingly dubbed it) as they hid from their loved ones that the universe had a nearing expiration date. Dan had told Chloe they had a long drive ahead of them to get to Abuleta's for the weekend, and Chloe knew that Trixie would be happier spending her last days blissfully unaware compared to the increasingly anxious mess that posed as a detective these days.

And yet, the secret that only she and Lucifer knew, a secret that only his father could possibly also be aware of, burned within her.

It had been a spur of the moment thing, one last micro rebellion, or at least that's what they both told themselves.

It wasn't entirely romantic, to begin with. Lucifer had told her he had a few favourites to cash in on inside the Office of the County Clerk. Two hours later, they both signed paperwork provided to them, and Chloe was left asking herself the same question she had almost thirteen years ago. Shrugging, she signed her name differently for the first time in her life.

After the weekend, it wouldn't matter anymore anyway.

As soon as the official left, they had ordered food and danced the majority of the night, holding each other and whispering promises to one another. She begged him to play one of her current favourite songs, for awhile he had left it on repeat.

"This isn't your usual fare, Detective." He had murmured, his fingers splayed against the small of her back.

"No, but it reminds me of us." She had sighed into his chest.

"Even the part where I have none of you?" Was his next query, and it had sounded like a susurration more than words.

She had looked up into those warm chocolate eyes, so expressive and vivid depending on his mood, her hands slipping around the back of his neck.

"Such silly questions, Mr. Morningstar. What else can I do to prove you have all of me? Quite literally until the end of time?"

"You know me, Mrs. Morningstar, better than anyone in the existence of said time. I imagine I'll question it until my last breath."

There's something to knowing you're going to die, especially at the same time. They knew they were going to spend whatever they had left of their lives together, and so floodgates opened, and conversation spilt forth between them as they reminisced on the good and the bad throughout their interwoven paths.

But now, they are not going to die. At least not yet, and she can't help the tears welling in her eyes as she grows more increasingly paranoid that it's happened again. She can't help but feel that every time she does something, God finds a way to hold it against her.

Against him.

She cannot help feeling mocked. There is no way that God would deem Charlie's life not worth living, that the entirety of Heaven, Earth, and Hell should close shop, that no one would survive… Only to have him change his mind?

"I think we should all sit," Linda says, still bouncing the toddler against her hip. Charlie is looking around at his family with curious brown eyes, a whimper to his voice as he tucks his head in his mother's neck. Chloe's sure he can feel the tension and needs as much comfort as the rest of them. "I think we probably are all suffering from a bit of shock and that it might take time for us to process this."

Linda's eyes meet Chloe's again, nodding towards the loveseat.

She feels Lucifer as he enters her bubble, sliding his hand around her shoulder and guiding her towards the leather loveseat in Linda's living room. Her head finds itself drawn to the contact, and she's already exhausted, resting her head against him. They sit down as Michael takes a chair and Ella sits on the arm of it, everyone looking at each other in awe, confusion, and hope.

Chloe can't help but think of Trixie. Of her smile, how she must be saying goodnight to Dan and her Abuelita. How she'll see her daughter again, and that the goodbye they had said yesterday afternoon was not their last.

And she smiles.

> **THEN || FEBRUARY 6 TH 2020**

The sliding glass door swishes open before closing quickly, and God does not need to turn to know the footsteps coming up behind him as he stares out at the hazy orange and red sunset.

"Magnificent, is it not? Everyone always seems to give me credit for it all, but I am not as egocentric as most presume child. I am able to give my children credit for the work they create." He turns to greet her then and sits in one of the lounge chairs that decorates the Decker patio.

"My mom wants me to come out here to apologize." Trixie states with such apathy he can't help but chuckle.

"Is that what she told you?" He asks, knowing full well the answer. He squints up at her from his current position, the light hitting her so warmly that she practically glows. Awkwardly she shrugs before gracefully sliding into the chair opposite him. He already sees it in her, such a balance between both forces.

"No," Trixie admits, her hands placed folded in her lap as she sits tall. "She doesn't believe in forcing apologies. She just tries to make people see things from other perspectives. Which is her version of asking me to do so. In school, I learned the difference between sympathy and empathy. I think she just wants me to be able to do both."

God nods slowly, with such care at her. "Sounds like Chloe Decker is a smart and caring mother, one you love very much."

It is Trixie's turn to nod.

"Otherwise, you would not be here, prepared to give an apology you do not believe in," and He cannot help but smile when she narrows her eyes at him before folding her arms.

"Am I incorrect in my judgement Beatrice Espinoza?" He inquires. "Or are you remorseful for your actions earlier?"

Trixie shakes her head slowly. Her arms remain crossed, although the tension in her stare lessens.

"Why do you think that is?" He asks her as he leans forward in his chair, His arms coming to rest across his knees. He thinks now they've spent enough time in each other's presence, He can edge a bit closer to study those eyes. It's one of His favourite pastimes since coming to Earth. He watches as the little girl thinks about her response, tempering her frustration with logic.

"Because… We both know I didn't do anything you didn't want me to do. Even if it was rude, it was an end to a means or some saying like that. It stopped everyone from fighting, didn't it?" He notices how she cannot help her eyes from going slightly wide and accusatory near the end of her sentence. He mirrors her reaction, a subtle expression of shock outlining His features.

"You are very clever, Beatrice Espinoza." He smiles at her, and it pleases Him that her scowl grows slightly more significant. He cannot think of anyone He has met so far that's more perfect than the suspicious child in front of Him.

"May I ask you a question?" He starts.

"You just did."

"I can see why Lucifer is drawn to you." And there it is, He thinks to Himself as He watches the corners of her mouth twitch as though she so desperately wants to smile at the thought, and although the sun paints her pretty and pinkish in hues already, He can see a small blush form on her little cheeks. She's at the age where she's beginning to feel embarrassed once and awhile for her natural emotions.

"That's a statement." He already thinks He will miss her most at this age as she grows into a young woman. She's full of passion and free will, but she's still so curious, explorative, respectful even in her small rebellions.

"Beatrice Espinoza, what do you think of this world, of this life?"

He sees that she's caught off guard by the question. He knows she doesn't get asked her opinion much about things that matter to her now. He knows that His own children ignore her, and the humans think that she is just a child, blissfully unaware. But as with most children on the cusp of their teenage years, she is wiser than she appears, blending into the background and slipping into the guise of both the child and adult when she needs to.

"I think life is whatever you want it to be, so that's cool, I guess. Some people like to create art, some like to help people, some like to explore, you made sure there were lots of options. Ever since Lucifer explained how Hell works, I just…" She stares out at the sunset, and the scowl washes off her face.

"I try to do the right thing, the one that will make me feel least guilty." She shrugs again, but there is more grace there this time, her attitude towards Him shifting with the conversation. "Which, sometimes isn't what everyone else is expecting me to do."

He nods once more, trying to convey just how deeply He understands.

"Hence the potatoes."

Trixie smiles. "Exactly. I hit you because I thought it was the right thing to do, and even if I had been wrong, I figured you'd be the least mad. Everyone else was so upset, but not you."

"Not me." He agrees.  
  
"Besides," Trixie continues as she scrutinizes his face with growing fascination. "I heard about the police station."

"Mmm, quite right, I do hate it when my children fight."

"Yeah, and I didn't want it to get to that point. Food is easier to clean up than bloodstains." She finishes, and it's more to herself. God can't help but think of her Miss Alien, and it's ambiguous brown stains. He _loves_ that she knows that.

"Can I ask you something now? Another thing." She smiles toothy and wide, and He feels himself get almost misty-eyed. He would have never played the same wordgame with her, but the fact that she was prepared for Him too, that she wants to play with him, pleases him so.

"Of course, Beatrice Espinoza, ask away."

"Why did you ask if my mom could host the dinner?" Trixie enquires, slightly shifting in her seat. Her tone is clipped and her brows knotted, but she completely shut her sunny disposition away.

"I suppose that would help you with your anger towards me?" He offers, tilting His head just so before leaning back in the chair. The sun has finally fallen over the horizon, and the colours are contrasting bright and bold under the threat of darkness looming. Trixie swallows and nods, no trace of malice or contempt left on her face.

"Well, I imagine your frustration stems from the fact that your mother did not have an opportunity to say no if she hosted. That her frustration and anxiety are justified with being forced into the same room as her capture, her ex-husband, demonic roommate, child, and partner. But… while I tend to agree with your position on the matter, I could not help but ask."

"You had to know she wouldn't say no."

"No, I do not know that. Like I did not know we would have this positively delightful little chit-chat."

"Aren't you God," Trixie rolls her eyes before holding her hands out in an air of helplessness, "aren't you suppose to know all of it?"

"Even I have hopes Beatrice Espinoza. I had hoped she would say yes. Just like I had hoped your father would agree, and," He begins with a heavy sigh while looking back at the apartments sliding doors. "How I hoped we would be able to get through a meal together without incident."

He turns back to Trixie, and her eyes are wide with wonder and kindness.  
  
"Even I can dream, little one." He tells her softly and smiles. Beatrice's face breaks into a sheepish knowing grin, and they both share a moment nodding slightly at each other, finding common ground.

They both love their family.

They both want what is best for them.  
They both are willing to do what it takes to get the desired results.

They both hear the familiar swish of the door opening before Chloe pokes her head out, and pointedly makes eye contact with Trixie. 

"Five more minutes, Monkey. Then bed." Is her curt declaration.

"Okay, mom."

Chloe nods briefly at God before closing the door.

"She's pissed," and it catches Him off guard so much so that He belly laughs, high and melodic.

"You, Beatrice Espinoza." God says, "I asked for your father to attend, and for your mother to host, because I wanted to meet you, and you so far have not disappointed."


	6. Yield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Aren't you lonely?"  
> "I believe I am. I was not once. There was a time I was not lonely at all. Then I became preoccupied with work, and it destroyed the ones I held dearest."  
> "I think that's why my parents got divorced too."  
> God briefly smiles as he looks at Trixie. "You always know how to humble me so, dear child."
> 
> ~***~
> 
> While Penny and Vaeh cross the country on a private Jet, Penny allows Vaeh to play twenty questions.

> **| THEN || FEBRUARY 13 TH 2020**

"Mom?" Trixie calls out as she grasps her jean jacket off the hook by the door before pulling her loose hair out from behind the collar. She looks into the kitchen at her mother's preoccupied stance. Chloe is chopping vegetables against a wooden cutting board.

"I'm going to go for a walk. I keep making the same mistake on my homework, so I think I need a movement break."

Chloe turns from where she is making supper in the kitchen to meet Trixie's gaze. "Dinner's in half an hour. Can you please set an alarm?"

"Of course, Momma," Trixie replies, pulling out her phone and setting herself a twenty-minute timer so that she has enough time to return. She blows her a kiss before gently closing the door behind her; Walking away from the apartment complex and down the street towards the closest playground. As she turns the block, she sees a familiar face sitting in one of the swings, and she hurries up her pace to meet her.

"If your mom finds out, you could get in–"

"I'm not going to let all this adult BS affect our relationship," Trixie tells Maze confidently before sitting on the swing beside her and beginning to pump her legs. "No matter _how_ dumb you're all being."

Maze stares at Trixie curiously, a small smile creeping up into the corner of her mouth. She's rather dressed down from what Trixie is used to. A cropped high neck knit top with a black duster, mini skirt with thigh-high boots, her hair piled high on her head.

"You're mad." It's a statement more than a question, and Trixie knows she doesn't have to hesitate when telling Maze the truth.

"Yeah, I'm mad! I don't know why it's so hard for all of you to see each other! Like REALLY see each other."

Maze smiles sadly before digging her own heels into the sand and pushing off. "I think you overestimate all of us."

She smiles and watches as Trixie climbs higher with each movement. Maze doesn't seem up to carrying the conversation forward, so Trixie tries again. "Time heals all wounds, so it's a good thing your family is full of immortals, besides–" Trixie pumps her legs more, "You and Lucifer never seem mad at each other for long."

"I don't think it's that simple this time Trix, your mom is pretty upset too, and she's not an immortal, and I have my own reasons for not forgiving Lucifer so easily."

"Things are only hard when adults make them be. I heard mom talking about a soul, that you want a soul, that Michael promised a soul, blah blah blah. FIRST OF ALL… What makes you think that weirdo would follow through when he seems to lie to everyone, including God."

"I think I need to go away for a little while Trix. I–"

"And I'm thinking, how the hell does a badass demon like you fall for such torture? What makes you think that a soul is going to make life better? I mean, Ella's ex Pete has one, and look what he did to her. He even told her he cared about her regardless of attempted murder, at least that's what I heard Ella tell Mom."

A parent in the playground turns their head in her direction and then pulls their child away from the swing set. "Call me crazy, but other than Lucifer, who we know can hold his own as long as mom isn't around, you don't try to murder the people you care about."

Maze is silent for a moment before she stops her swing, prompting Trixie to do the same. "It's not that simple Trixie, maybe if I had a soul, I could… maybe there's someone…"

"You see what love and relationships look like, and you think a soul would magically make that happen?"

Trixie then stands up from her swing and looks at her phone, realizing she will have to leave soon. So she comes closer to Maze's swing; their positions make it so that their eye to eye.

"Maze, I love you. I will always love you. You're my best friend. If I want to know about anything, you're the one to teach me _everything_ you know about it. You take me out on adventures, and you play games with me. You're the only adult who doesn't make me feel like a little kid, even when you call me 'small human.' You tell me stories, and when I have problems at school, you give me advice. You don't get huffy if I do something different either. Because you still want what's best for me, and you take care of me because you want to, not because anyone asks you to. That's what having a soul is, all of those things."

"Trix, that's really sweet, but that's not how it works."

Trixie's alarm starts going off, "Sure, fine… whatever," She tells Maze, sighing as she shoves the device back into her pocket and begins to turn to walk away.

"I take that thing about how you don't talk to me like I'm a kid back." And Trixie begins to move away from the playground.

"Trixie!" Maze calls out, and Beatrice can hear the pain in her voice, so she turns around to face the demon once more.

"I take it back. I'm sorry. But I have to go. I can probably get away with this again sometime tomorrow. But Maze?" And Trixie is walking backwards along the grass, headed towards the sidewalk that will lead her back to her apartment. She assumes her mother will expect her to make the table for the two of them since, right now, everyone is angry with each other once more.

"Yeah, Trix?"

"You should go see my dad tomorrow night. I’m with mom this week." 

"Maybe." Maze rolls her eyes. 

"You have to learn to love yourself, Maze. It's kind of an important part of loving other people at least that's what this book my dad was reading s—" 

"Yes I know about the damn book Trix." 

> **|NOW|| DECEMBER 22 ND 2028**

"So, do you want to start?" Vaeh asks their ascent into the sky now past them. She flexes her cherry colour painted fingers and stares at her own palms that now bear crescent moon shaped cuts deep into them. She watches as Penny leans down and removes her boots before wiggling her toes. "Or should I? Like, we just play 20 questions?"

Penny pauses like she is considering the request. She stands from where they are seated and stretches, causing her black leather jacket to creak and groan as she saunters across the immaculate carpet of the most decadent jet Vaeh has ever seen. She casually makes her way over to a bar set up on the left of the plane unbeknownst to Vaeh, Penny only has one preference for how to get through this conversation.

"I like it better when you ask questions." Penny returns, her voice lilting gently as she pulls out amber looking spirits and pours herself a finger. "Also, that counts."

"As one of my questions?"

"So does that, yes."

"Okay," Vaeh yawns, already exhausted as she rubs underneath her cat-eye framed glasses. "Who will be there for the holidays?"

"My mom, Lucifer, Dad, Charlie, Linda, Amenadiel, and Maze, once they return." Penny forces out the whole sentence in one breath before she shoots the alcohol back and looks to Vaeh. She holds her own glass up and gestures to the bottle in front of her.

"No thanks, I'm already nauseated. I don't think drinking like you do would help in this particular situation."

Penny shrugs and pours herself another finger before stating. "You say that _now_."

The statement hangs in the air with some weight before Penny gulps her glass down once more, her ring clinking against the glass.

Vaeh watches with curious eyes as the person she cares about the most cracks her neck and sighs before pouring one more finger and then capping the bottle. _Do you think you might want to slow down?_ runs as a question through her mind, but instead, she asks, "This isn't just about Christmas family reunion, is it?"

Penny shakes her head, her thumb in her mouth to savour the liquid gold that spilt on it during a small moment of turbulence. "No, Lucifer said that the demon we were tracking has _a particular set of skills_ , and he's helping locate a book that has been lost for a very long time, one that we, the family, have been searching for for over two years."

"What's with this book?"

"It's a Doctrine. Theoretically, if we find it, it could help mould the entire shape of the universe." Penny explains to Vaeh as she returns to sit beside her. Vaeh continues to observe Penny.

"And we _want_ that?"

"Yes, Vaeh, we want that very much."

"Is there something wrong with the universe currently?"

"You know how we were laughing at David for all his conspiracy theories about we're living in the end times?" Penny explains and crosses her long legs over each other on a seat the resembles a leather sofa.

"Please don't tell me that he's right."

"Well… he's not _entirely_ wrong either."

"That pompous ass. One minute he's talking about famine and plagues, the next, he's telling us that he and Rose are saving for invitro. Seems cruel to me if he truly believes it." Vaeh chastises as she crosses her arms.

"I can't think of anyone who's truly happy to be right about the end of it all, VaeVae." Penny points out by holding her glass towards Vaeh and tipping it in earnest.

"How long has the world been ending?"

"Universe." Penny corrects.

"Universe?"

"Universe."

"As in no more Earth, no more Sun, no more Heaven, or Hell, Humans or?" Vae holds her right hand upwards towards the cabin ceiling and circles it in slow-motion as though she's rooting around in some imaginary container to pull out the word she is searching for.

"Celestials. no more any of it."

"Why would God want to end _it all_?"

> **| THEN || MARCH 7 TH 2020**

"Fuck you, Espinoza." A thirteen-year-old boy spits out before pushing her in a grassy patch of the playground, but Trixie doesn't lose her balance. Instead, Trixie counters his weight against him and throws him to the ground.

"Eat shit, Todd." She flatly tells the boy at her feet as other kids move around her.

Two other boys help him up as other kids gather around Trixie, and an adult on supervision makes their way over.

Children scatter, but Trixie stands her ground as the woman in the orange safety vest approaches.

"What's going on over here, Beatrice?"

"Todd was upset, and I responded. Now we are fine."

"Is that true, Todd?" The orange-clad adult asks the four of them left standing around. Todd nods his head, and his friends do the same.

"Right. Go play boys, Beatrice, I'm benching you till the bell." Rolling her eyes at the supervisor, she wipes her hands together and down her jeans as she continues to move forward. As she looks up into the sunshine, she sees a familiar face sitting at the bench on the other side of the schoolyard.

"What are you doing here?" She asks curiously, with no hint of malice in the statement as she plops down beside the older man.

"I was compelled to finish one of our earlier conversations, but seeing as Chloe Decker and Dan Espinoza does not feel at ease leaving us alone to do so, I figured I could find other ways of continuing our relationship."

Trixie nods, the sun causing her brow to sweat as she pushes her hair back off her face and sighs.

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Why did that boy try to push you?"

"Who Todd? Todd thinks he likes me, so he tries to be mean to me, but he also gets weird if other boys want to talk to me, which means he doesn't like me the right way."

She watches as God nods his head, his brows furrowed as he looks back out at the playground. "Peculiar."

She huffs a bit, squinting into the sun. "I'm sure he'll get over it. Everything gets better with time."

God looks to her confused when she makes this statement. "Are you so certain about that Beatrice Espinoza?"

"Seems to be working out so far. You'd have to tell me."

"Time wears us all away in the end,"

"Are you okay? You're beginning to sound like some of the poetry some of the kids in my class write."

God chuckles, folding one leg over the other and placing his hands on his knees. They stare out at the children playing on the playground equipment squealing in delight as they chase each other in a game of tag. "My apologies, child, I have not been feeling like myself as of late. The longer I stay in this body, the more mortal I have begun to feel."

"Is that a bad thing? Linda sometimes says that we have to accept the things that are beyond our control."

"It can be. The more cut off from my celestial-side, the less control I have over what happens to the universe."

"What happens if you're not in control?"

"I do not know. I have been in control for as long as I can remember."

"Aren't you lonely?"

"I believe I am. I was not once. There was a time I was not lonely at all. Then I became preoccupied with work, and it destroyed the ones I held dearest."

"I think that's why my parents got divorced too."

God briefly smiles as he looks at Trixie. "You always know how to humble me so, dear child."

"Any more questions?"

"Why did Ashley Drummond punish you but not the other child?"

"Because adults tend to only see what they want to see. Mrs. Drummond saw me throw him, but she didn't hear or see him try to push me. Technically I could have been sent to the office, but she let me off easy."

"You're not going to fight her, right the injustice?"

"What's the point?" She asks him.

"Remarkable."

They sit a few moments longer before Trixie hears the bell ring, all the students on the playground running towards the doors to return to their classrooms. But still Trixie stays.

"God?"

"Yes, Beatrice Espinoza."

"Did you ever think that maybe you need more than a vacation? Maybe you need friends or a partner?"

"I believe you might be correct in that deduction Beatrice Espinoza."

> **| NOW ||**

"He was lonely. He decided that a monotheistic system is a broken one." Penny watches as Vaeh’s eyes look like their going to fall right out of their sockets.

"Okay, I'm not even going to unpack that. I’m putting a pin in it because I only have so many questions and God’s loneliness is worth a whole game of twenty unto itself… How long as total annihilation been going down?"

Penny sighs and shifts in her seat, trying to avoid Vaeh's gaze. "Since 2020."

"JESUS CHRIST PENNY EIGHT YEARS?!" Vaeh yells, her hands reaching for her scalp as she pulls on her own hair.

"Well, if you consider the first time it started," Penny adds, twirling her ring around on her finger.

"There was a second time?" Vaeh squeaks before removing her glasses and pinching the bridge of her nose in distress.

"There was, is indeed."

"What stopped it the first time?"

"He was convinced to hold off for an indefinite amount of time."

"And now it's happening as we speak?"

"Sort of? What's happening now is Revelations. How can I… okay one second. You see this bottle of Perrier?" Penny asks, grabbing for one of the green bottles sitting in a bucket of ice resting on a rubber grip on the table in front of them.

"I'd rather be drinking that bottle of Perrier," Vaeh says before trying to snatch the bottle out of Penny's hand. Penny's quick reflexes are no match for her friend; however, she manages to hold the bottle out of her range. 

"This is our universe." Penny begins before she begins to shake the bottle in her hand. 

"And taking the cap off would be the end of it all... Lucifer's Father–"

"–God."

"Sure, He had intended for the cap to come off in 2021," And Penny demonstrates the possibility of removing the lid, "BUT," she says, lifting her hand away. "He changed his mind. Everyone thought that the issue was resolved."

"But, all that pressure."

"All that pressure."

"Did it go away?"

"I guess over time it would have, long, long loooooooong period of time… but we will never know because in 2026 it happens again… only this time…" Penny slowly and gently opens the lid slightly, and bubbles begin rising to the top of the bottle, a hissing sound barely audible above the roar of the jet engines. Water does not fly everywhere like it would if she had open the bottle completely but instead gets on the hand holding the aforementioned item.

"Damn it, Penny, you're getting that everywhere," Vaeh complains before going to the bar and grabbing a cloth, and hurrying back to Penny.

"Don't you think a situation the whole way through before you start?"

> **|THEN|| NOVEMBER 12 TH 2022**

"Well?" Chloe asks, frustrated, "Do you?" and she holds up a broken figurine that is older than the city of Los Angeles itself. She’s pretty sure Lucifer had told her it was a gift from Napoleon. Since they have tried to cohabitate, Trixie has found that her mother is getting increasingly stressed out about Lucifer’s things and keeping the house clean. Currently, she's standing in the doorframe of Trixie's room.

"I already said I was sorry to Lucifer," Trixie mumbles, her head down, staring at the tip of the knife she is boring into the top of the desk she is sitting at in her room. Chloe sighs from her position at the door before moving into Trixie's room and sitting on her bed.

"Monk… Trixie." Chloe pleads, "We both know that Lucifer doesn't know how to feel anything but pride, love and mild irritation for you. Which is why–" Chloe continues as Trixie's mouth opens to object, "We have to be extra careful not to abuse that type of unconditional affection."

Chloe watches as Trixie fights the urge to roll her eyes at her mother, a source of many of their own personal conflicts. "It's the second time this week," Chloe adds.

"And it was an _accident_. Maze was teaching me deflection at incoming projectiles, and I didn't think it would ricochet the way that it did."

Chloe closes her eyes and breathes out a long measured breath. "Beatrice, it's not the actual accident I'm here trying to…" she stops and tries to reframe. "Trix, you know how mature I think you are, how I KNOW you know better about a lot of the things you do. I mean, ever since you were little, you've just had this way of being able to cut straight to the point, even before Maze came into our lives."

 _And started teaching you how to play with knives, damn it._

"And I love that about you, I admire you. You have always been so accepting and non-judgemental. It makes me want to be more like you!" Trixie can see the earnest affection in her mother’s face before she steels herself and begins again, "which is why I think it's hard for me to understand why you have such a hard time seeing a whole situation through till the end and understanding the consequences."

"I DO understand the consequences, mom, and I accept them. I just think sometimes you have a hard time with that fact."

Chloe bristles at the interaction, and so Beatrice tries to explain. "Okay, for example. It wasn't that I didn't know I could have accidentally made a mess or possibly broken something, especially since I did it on Tuesday. But–" and Trixie now mimics her mother's own behaviour and does not allow herself to be interrupted. "Maze was sad. I didn't want to pry, but it was something between her and dad. And when Maze feels things, she doesn't know how to express them unless she is busy doing something active. I would rather have broken something here at our home by accident then instead of some bounty's face without reason, or something of Dad's in spite. I don't know. I just, I made the choice, and I accept the consequences."

Chloe's brows furrow in thought as she listens to her daughter's reasoning.

"I guess I should be the one apologizing to you, sweetheart," she starts, "It’s not an issue of you not seeing the forest through the trees but that sometimes we are in completely different forests."

Trixie shrugs and lets the knife fall with a clanking sound against the would of her desk.

"You're not… wrong, mom. It's not like it doesn't happen. But usually, those are situations that you've taught me are out of my control. But we lead unusual lives." She gets up and moves over to sit beside her mother on the mattress, taking the broken figurine out of her hands from her mother to examine them.

"That we do." Chloe smiles, watching as Trixie looks to make the two halves whole.

“A little bit of wood glue should do the trick. Besides, it gives it character.”

> **|NOW||**

  
Vaeh senses as Penny begins to grow dower, and before she knows what is going on, Penny snaps.

"No more questions. That was your twenty."

Silence fills the cabin of the jet as Vaeh tries to think back on her questions and how many she has asked, but before she can surmise if Penny is telling her the truth or not, one of the pilots is coming over the speaker.

“Alright ladies, we ask that you buckle your seatbelts for the next few minutes as it seems we are about to head into a pocket of turbulence. We will let you know when it’s safe to remove them again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit late, but I have news, the next chapter is almost complete and I have a few chapters of the companion fic to this piece started, already outlining even more of what happened 8 years prior, with flashbacks of course since that's my style.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and love hearing your thoughts!


	7. Concessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Not for quite some time, for both of them now." Maze eyes light up, "Especially for your mom, this is her first time back since she took the job." She wiggles her brows for emphasis. 
> 
> "Please, they'll make googly eyes at each other all week from opposite sides of the room before we finally beg them to go get it out of their system." Penny rolls her eyes. "Regardless of timing on this one, it isn't our first rodeo." 
> 
> ~*~*~
> 
> Vaeh meets Maze.
> 
> ~*~*~

> |NOW || DECEMBER 2028 

Penny had not recognized she was holding her breath until the jet had reached a full stop. She could feel her own pulse through her hand, currently being crushed between her ring and Vaeh's vice grip. Penny squeezes the hand in hers back. 

"Are you okay? I'm here for you." She tells Vaeh as she leans in and places her head on Vae's shoulder, her soft curls tickling Penny's face. She feels remorseful for her earlier actions, shutting Vaeh down, but considering that Vae has been on a borderline panic attack the entire trip, Penny knew that she was triggered and decided it was time to stop before she said something she would regret. It feels like her teeth are floating. 

"I will be, now that we are done landing." Vae shakily returns, resting her head on top of Penny's. The weight of her head pushes Penny's ponytail painfully against her skull, but she doesn't move away. It's Vaeh instead, who sighs before lifting herself, pulling her hand away. As the small door to the cockpit opened, both women stand up and stretch, Vae unusually quiet as her dress skirt lifts higher along her leggings. Penny surmises it's because she's in new territory. Vaeh tends to observe silently, from a distance, assessing situations before deciding how much of herself she wants to reveal. 

One of the pilots releases a hatch handle and pushes the door wide to exit. Penny turns to grab her leather duffle bag placed in an overhead compartment before regarding the pilot curiously and looking back to the door. 

"Our night isn't done, miss," she assures Penny while tipping her hat. 

Penny hoists her bag over her shoulder before rushing to the exit, taking the steps two at a time. As more of the runway comes into view, she sees a black Mercedes in the distance, a familiar demon resting against the hood. She's wearing a black leather jacket with spiked shoulders, black jeans and hair cut strikingly short. 

"Maze!" Penny finds herself exclaiming before running full tilt into her stepmother's arms. 

"Hey Munchkin," the demon says with such ease, Penny's unsure if Lucifer told Maze the whole truth about her return. "Miss me?" 

"Always." Penny returns with fervour and squeezes her tighter, which Maze seems to take as a contest, and begins to press her closer with even more strength. Penny can feel Vae shuffling with her bags up behind them. 

"My favourite human," Maze whispers into her crown before inhaling deeply. "You smell… Amazing." 

"Could be the coconut conditioner or," Penny begins as she pulls back from the hug, "It could be this." 

She pulls out the neatly folded red pocket square, soiled with grey and black around the edges. She looks up into Maze's eyes and watches them flash wide, her pupils dilate as she swallows. Penny holds it out to her gently to take before turning to Vaeh. 

Vaeh stands there patiently with a sincere but polite smile on her face, hands crossed in front of her dress as she shifts her weight from one leg to another, as though she's on her best behaviour. Her backpack remains on, with the rest of their baggage scattered around them on the runway. It reminds her of when they first met. 

"Vae, this is my stepmother, Maze," Penny states as she turns back to the demon. Maze just finished huffing the small scrap of fabric like it was her drug of choice before shoving it into the back pocket of her dark jeans. 

"Maze, this is Vae. She's my favourite person outside of the family. Be nice." Penny requests, but she's unsure if Maze even heard her as the demon starts to slowly stalk around Vaeh like a panther. Penny meets Vaeh's gaze, and they smile at one another. It's enough that Penny knows Vaeh realizes she's safe. 

Maze peers down her nose as she continues to circle her. "You're short." 

"You're hot." Vaeh retorts with a shrug. Maze pauses for a moment and hums happily. 

"I know," she says to Vaeh as she leans on her shoulder, grabbing at one of Vaeh's loose curls and wrapping it around her finger. 

"Don't get her all worked up. It's still more than half an hour from the house. " Penny tells Maze, rolling her eyes as Vaeh starts to giggle. "The jet is waiting for you." 

Sighing, Maze pulls herself away from Vaeh and squints. "Do you take care of her, Van?" 

"Vaeh," Penny corrects when it becomes apparent that Vaeh won't be doing it herself any time soon. 

"Whatever." Maze is clearly speaking to Penny, but she continues to hold Vaeh's stare. 

Vaeh nods absently and shrugs, "I do my best." 

Maze dips her head, the barest of gestures before taking a few steps backward, but it's enough to be outside of Vaeh's personal space once more. 

She turns just enough so Penny can see her face once more. "Well, someone has to." 

"Hurtful!" Penny exclaims. 

"Accurate." Vaeh concurs. 

"Munchkin, for much of your life, you've been spoiled rotten. More than Charlie even. Accept it. Move on." 

"Mmhmm… sure." Penny rolls her eyes move towards Vaeh , and grabs the luggage at her feet... "Private jets and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. That's me, the princess." She turns to Nevaeh before Maze can get a word in edgewise, "I'm going to help you get in the car, and then I need to talk to Maze alone." 

Vaeh moves her head in acknowledgement and waves a little half-hearted wave. "It was nice meeting you, Maze." 

The demon just sneers, folding leather-clad arms over herself as she leans against the vehicle again. 

Penny picks up the bags. There aren't many as they chose to pack as light as two people with little time to think too clearly about it would. She marches her way around to the trunk of the vehicle and presses the release, so she can unceremoniously dump the baggage in the back. Vaeh walks over to the passenger door and enters the car, slamming the door behind her and pulling out her phone as a sign that she'll try to give Maze and Penny as much privacy one can muster in these types of situations. Once Penny sees Vae situated, she returns to her stepmother, pulling a slim cigarette holder out of her back pocket. 

"She's adorable." Maze stages, and it's almost NOT condescending. 

"I know." Penny returns, opening the holder and pulling out her cigarette of choice, snapping it shut and patting her leather jacket, looking for a lighter. 

"I sense a little freak underneath it all," Maze comments as she pulls a Zippo from one of her own pockets, flicking it open and lighting it for Penny. 

"Pretty much." Penny leans down and drags on the stick in her mouth, the end of it lighting up in an orange-red glow. 

"Are you happy?" 

Penny exhales and uses her thumb to scratch an itch on her lip. "With her? Sure. I mean as much as I can be. Are any of us? When's the last time you were happy?" 

"Your father seems happy." Maze shrugs, still watching the younger woman in front of her. If it looked like Maze was her birth mother just from old pictures, it's even harder to grasp now as they both share a similar fashion sense. 

"Mmmm," Penny hums as she takes another drag, "Dad always had a knack for remaining positive. Sometimes it's pretty rage-inducing." 

"I don't know," Maze tilts her head a bit before gesturing to behind her, "Seems like you found your own slice of ignorant bliss, Munchkin." 

"Okay, can you lay off the Munchkin?" Penny shakes her head, slightly irritated, before offering the lit smoke to Maze. Maze shakes her head no. 

"I'm sorry, I still am struggling with the whole you're not Trixie anymore part." 

"Why? I don't get it. It's just a name. Lucifer changed his name, and you were okay." 

"Yes, but I didn't know him as Samael, Penelope. You've been apart of my life on Earth longer than not, and in all that time, you were Trixie." 

"I know," She sighs, "What am I supposed to do?" 

"Do you want to be Trixie, or do you want to be Penny?" 

"I want to not feel like I'm constantly being judged, or least this false sense of guilt I apparently carry around all the damn time. Whenever someone calls me Trixie anymore, it makes me want to wince." 

"And you think it's hurtful when I say you sound just like him?" Maze asks, her arms crossed around her chest, her body still pressed to the hood of the car. 

"And so what if I do? We still all call him Lucifer and not Samael?" 

"Technically, I've been calling him Fuckface. Asshat. Lord Mother _—_ " 

" **Please** ," Penny holds her hand up to Maze, her voice on the edge of loud. She looks over to Vaeh in the car, who still doesn't appear to be paying them much heed. "Do NOT finish that moniker, considering how accurate for me." 

"Not for quite some time, for both of them _now_." Maze eyes light up, "Especially for your mom, this is her first time back since she took the job." She wiggles her brows for emphasis. 

"Please, They'll make googly eyes at each other all week from opposite sides of the room before we finally beg them to go get it out of their system." Penny rolls her eyes. "Regardless of timing on this one, it isn't our first rodeo." 

"What are you going to do when your mom shows up?" 

Penny weighs her options, none of them feel great. Not one to lie, she begins, "I don't know. I haven't planned that far ahead. I've been thinking about what this means for us, for the Doctrine. I've been trying to take everything one step at a time. The next being to drive back through Santa Monica to the house. I assume I'm supposed to head to Dad's." 

Maze nods. "Linda and Charlie are already there." 

Penny swallows at the mention of Charlie, a slight chill settling over the back of her neck at the thought of how she left the six-year-old the last time she had seen him. 

"Lucifer didn't tell me why I wasn't allowed to follow. I thought we were sending anyone we found back. I thought the point was to prevent the whole evil-from-walking-the-earth part." 

"Amii was always great at revealing treasure. He's also desperate to get back into the Silver City." 

"He isn't your brother?" Penny furrows her brow, finishing her cigarette and butting it out on the ground. 

"No, he's one of Lucifer's." 

"Why is a fallen celestial using a human body for this task?" Penny sighs, pressing the bridge of her nose. She needs caffeine. Or a drink. Or both.

"Because Amii has never been to the Earthly plane, and Lucifer did not trust him to blend in with full celestial strength. Amii's end goal is to find the Doctrine and please the Heavenly Host. It won't be hard to convince him to come back when I tell him that we can arrange that." 

"You really think that he can find the Doctrine?" 

"If not the Doctrine, then Constantine, who may be able to shine a light on where the hell it is. Your Mother and Amenadiel seem to think it was worth trying." 

"That's why they're willing to risk coming back?" 

"I don't know what you want me to tell you, Penny. We won't know until or unless Amii finds it. Either we kill two birds with one stone, or your mother comes home for a brief but well-deserved visit with you and his Lord Whineness." 

"When did you start defending her?" Penny can't help but roll her eyes in a way that reminds Maze of her mother. 

"Chloe has always been a good mother. She has always put your best interests above everything else." 

Penny grunts at Maze before shifting her weight from one side to another. 

"Beatrice Penelope Jane Espinoza," and Penny's head shoots up at Maze’s growl. "THIS is what I am talking about. This kind of behaviour is what I mean when I tell you repeatedly that you are spoiled rotten. Your mother? She gave up everything, including you, to protect you. So, don't torture her when she gets home. It's only been two years for you." 

"Yes, okay, fine… I know how it works. Damn, when did you get so…" 

"Linda," they say at the same time. 

"Hey, kid, since everyone left," Maze shrugs a small gesture continuing to lean against the hood of the car, "it's just Linda, Charlie and your Dad to interact with. You should see how much that boy has grown." 

Penny thinks about the gravity of what Maze is telling her. When she had left Los Angeles two years ago, she had been angry, so angry, that she had taken it out on everyone around her with biting vitriol and barely contained hostility. 

> | THEN || JULY 2026 

Beatrice has several bags packed by the door. Maze and Lucifer are taking them two at a time and placing them in the back of the BMW that will be taking herself and Lucifer to the airport. The first month after they left, she cried herself to sleep every night until the tears ran dry, and she didn't think she would ever feel happy and affectionate again. 

She looks at the refrigerator, a picture of Lucifer and Dan smiling sadly beside her, her in a graduation gown, her honours cord laying haphazardly along her shoulders. No hint of pride or pleasure echoes from the picture, her face stone cold between them. 

She senses her before she acknowledges her. Linda is standing in front of her, looking older than Trixie thinks she's ever seen her. Wisps of gray blend in with a head full of blonde pulled back into a loose ponytail. 

"Charlie is waiting to say goodbye to you outside. I thought it best to give you two alone time since you know how attached he is to you." 

"I'm sure he has more important things to be upset about than his cousin moving away. Have fun helping him unpack all that trauma," is Trixie's pithy reply. She almost winces at her own behaviour. 

A small, lopsided but tight smile begins to form on Linda's face before she opens her arms as an offering to Trixie. Trixie begins to shake her head no, but her body begins to respond to the gesture against her will, and she slides her arms around the woman she considers an aunt's shoulders and walks into the embrace. She places her own head on top of Linda's. 

"You shouldn't let me talk to you like that," Trixie murmurs. 

"I've heard worse, you're going to need to continue to work through some of these issues while in New York, and while you're an adult now, and I think you should find someone local… I want you to know if you need ANYTHING, anything at all, I want you to call." Linda tells her from within the arms of the embrace. 

"Mmmmm," Trixie hums as an acknowledgement, but even her hums sound half-hearted. 

"Trixie." Linda's voice lilts the way it would if she were sitting on the couch in her office instead of saying goodbye to her home. Linda pulls back to search Trixie's face. Her face feels numb, her eyes sore from crying herself to sleep every night since they left. 

"Tell me you will keep me posted." 

"Jesus Linda, you're not my mother." 

"No, but I am your therapist, and I'm family, and I am allowed to worry about you." 

"Fine, I'll call you." 

"How often?" Linda requests. 

"I don't know. What do you want from me?" 

"I want to know that you're going to have someone to talk to when things get rough. Maze, Lucifer, they're not the greatest communicators. Your father _—_ " 

"Doesn't know how to cope." 

"It's not that he doesn't know how to cope, Trixie. Everyone's different. It just takes him more time. Give him that much. Someone who doesn't know how to cope would not be a part of the unique family we've created." 

They can hear both Maze and Lucifer bickering outside the house, complaining about the best way to arrange her bags in the back of the vehicle, Maze angry she's not joining them as they fly across the country. 

"I don't see why _—_ " 

"Because we bloody well need you here, Mazikeen _—_ " 

Trixie watches as Linda smiles at her again briefly, almost apologetically, before letting her go. Trixie heads for the front door, but before moving towards the vehicle, a flash of colour practically tackles her from her left side, causing a little 'oof' to spill out of her. 

It wasn't long before it became apparent that Charlie was going to biologically age twice as fast as a regular human, something that when God was still available to ask these questions, had confirmed would happen. 

That meant that currently, Charlie came across like a six-year-old trapped in a twelve-year old's body, another tidbit that made Linda's life that much harder without her partner. Dreams of Charlie being one of the most advanced beings in history had morphed with homeschooling and strategies that regular humans may employ with children with exceptional needs. 

Not that there was any denying that Charlie wasn't exceptional. 

"You can't go!" Charlie whines, holding onto her tightly, already incredibly tall for a twelve-year-old body, let alone a six-year-old. 

"I can, and I must." She huffs, trying to pry the boy's body away from hers. Their _unique_ family meant that one of the only babysitters that Linda and Amenadiel trusted had been Trixie. 

"NO!" He yells, both Lucifer and Maze still too preoccupied with their own argument about her life to notice she could use a little help. 

"Daddy and Auntie are gone, not you too." He sniffles, trying to hold her tightly. Trixie rolls her eyes and puts her hands on his shoulders to push him away. 

"You're going to have to get tougher, Charlie. This is one of those times," and she does push, slightly against him before releasing to drive her point home. She knows what she's about to do is wrong. She senses it before it's even out of her mouth, but it's as though she has no control over this pain, this hurt she feels, and she's sure that being this way will make it easier. "Besides," Trixie says, "I'm not really your cousin. We aren't even related. So why don't you go cry to your Mommy." 

She feels no pride at her behaviour, but no remorse either as his lip begins to quiver, his eyes full of unshed tears. She takes it as an opportunity to walk away from him and get into the BMW. The air conditioner keeps her cool as she stares straight ahead. She refuses to meet the gaze of the little boy, boring holes through her with his stare. She continues to wait for Lucifer and Maze to finish their bickering so they can finally transition to the airport. 

> |NOW|| 

"Are you suggesting you miss me?" Penny jams her tongue into her cheek from trying to smile, her eyes squinting at the woman in front of her. 

"Yeah," Maze giggles slightly as she removes herself from the hood, shaking her head at Penny, "you could say that my fierce little human. Come here." and she pulls Penny into her arms and holds her once more affectionately. 

"I'm not a small or even a little human anymore," Penny mumbles. 

"You'll always be little to me." Maze tells her, pulling back and holding her hands against Penny's shoulders. 

Penny reaches down and pulls the pocket square out of the demon's back pocket, which causes Maze to tilt her head searching. 

"I didn't have time to take his suit to the dry cleaners. This is mine." Maze's eyes light up happily, but her smile is one of understanding before Penny rolls her eyes and shoves the cloth in her own jean pockets. 

"Wish me luck." 

"You won't need it." 

* * *

Vaeh watches out the window as the L.A. night is lit up with billboards and traffic lights, the drive relatively quiet. She would currently like to watch the video she took of Maze and Penny while they were chatting outside of the car so she can read their lips, but she would rather do that without the chance of Penny watching her. 

"So..." Penny huffs, watching the traffic ahead of her. The vehicle has been silent for the entire trip so far, not even music playing as Penny seems hyper-focused on the road, which makes sense to Vaeh. As long as she's known Penny, she's never seen her drive once, so not only are they in seemingly unfamiliar territory, Penny's dived in with both feet. She looks over and watches as shadows dance across the woman's face. Her sleek black hair blends into the darkness, her expression unreadable. 

"So…" Vaeh returns before staring ahead of them so that Penny doesn't feel like she's staring at her. 

"That's one of my moms." 

"Yup, you said that." 

"So, two bio-logic-al parents to go!" Penny forces out in an awkward silted rhythm.

“Are you having a stronk?”

“Nope, I’m not having a stroke either. But thanks for asking.”

"No worries, just checking because yes, that was the plan, to meet your parents. The plan we discussed less than twenty-four hours ago." 

“Coooolcoolcoolcool coolio. I can't wait till you meet my Dad. He's one of the most ridiculously positive people you'll ever meet. You remind me of him sometimes." 

"Thank _you_?" Vaeh can’t help but let the last word come off as a question. She puts her phone in her dress pocket and turns her full attention to Penny sitting to her left.

"Penny, is there something you want to get off your chest? Before we arrive?" 

"So, I know I kind of, I know I wasn't very fair on the jet earlier." 

"I counted. Technically that first question was three, so, technically, you're right." 

"That's just it, Vaeh, I _—_ There's no joy in being right. I shut you out, and I don't do that. Not _you_. I've not been me since… since this started." 

"Penny,” Vaeh smiles and places her hand on Penny’s shoulder, “Your Devil!Dad shows up out of the blue to request that you return home this instant. Considering how I watch you handle authoritative behaviour in anyone, I can't imagine this has been easy for you." 

"Vaeh, I'm freaking the fuck out." 

"There's my PigPen." 

"Vaeh, I don't. What the hell am I going to do? I was sooo mean and so angry when I left my Dad." Penny pulls up to a four-way stop and rolls forward, switching her signal on to turn left.

"No." 

"No?" 

"No, don't play stupid. This isn't about how you left _him_. You've made it very clear it isn't daddy issues that are causing this level of panic." 

"Currently, you've told me that your stepmother's a demon, your stepfather is the devil, and that your father is… positive. But you seem to never bring up Momma Espinoza–" 

"Decker." 

"Decker? Fine. You never talk about your mom, Pen, so what is uuuup? You're seeing her for the first time in two years. Are we going to talk about this?"

Penny sharply inhales, and Vaeh immediately grows concerned. Penny is the calm and collected one of the two. Penny isn’t one to care about… well… anything. 

"I can't." 

"You can't or you won't?" 

"I can't right now because the idea of even _speaking_ about my mother gives me a panic attack." 

"Which part?" 

"Which part of speaking about her?" 

"Exactly. Like is it the seeing her part? Or how your mom left things? Or the fact that there's something up with her you won't tell me?" 

"All of the above?" 

"Okay. Well _—_ What if we tried _—_ What if we tried before your stepdad." 

"You can call him Lucifer." As they stop once more, Penny turns to look at Vaeh in the darkness of the vehicle.

"No, I can't… it's too weird for me just yet."

Penny smiles and shakes her head, and Vaeh knows that it’s because of her. She put that smile there. This is why she’s with Penny in L.A. to help cope with something that puts her own history to shame.

Penny turns to focus on the road 

"What was my mom like before Lucifer?" 

> |THEN || JANUARY 2016 

Trixie is staring at her father's knees, upset at the adults above her arguing, her fingers in her ears. She hears Lucifer tell both Chloe and Dan as much while she stares out at the other children moving around them. She already feels guilty that the principal called her parents, now they're fighting over who gets to take care of her. 

"I don't know whether to laugh or to shoot you." She hears her father say. 

"Surprise me." 

She giggles at Lucifer, managing to get her parents to stop fighting and make the situation more tolerable, the edge of her guilt sliding away. 

"Isn't he funny, Daddy?" She asks, looking up at Dan, and it's obvious her Daddy does NOT find it funny. 

"Hey, can you, uh, drop Trix at my mom's?" She hears Chloe ask her Dad, and she looks up into the sun at her mother's face. Her mother's golden hair always looked like it was radiating sunshine, and she feels her mom slip her warm fingers into her hand before saying. "We got to go. Thank you." 

Her mother bends down to look at her, and Trixie feels her heart feel warm as she stares into Chloe's blue eyes, at first she worries that she's disappointed her mother, one of the only things that cause her distress. "Trixella, give Mommy a kiss." 

It's a request, but Trixie feels the pull to please her mother regardless, leaning in and doing so before a brief hug. 

"I love you so much," Chloe tells her, and the guilt washes away. Her Mommy loves her. 

"Good job standing up to the mean girl." 

Trixie feels her face break into a broad smile, "Thanks, Mommy." 

> |NOW|| 

"Damn it, Vaeh, I don't remember much from before first grade, do you?" Penny mumbles to her as they turn left at a four-way stop. 

"Fair enough, memories like that do tend to blend together over time." 

"She was kind." Penny blurts out. Vaeh turns with a curious look and listens. "And beautiful." 

Penny looks over to Vaeh with a wistful look on her face. "And she was so strong." They are stopped again, the left signal clicking in the silence of the car, the sense of loss in Penny's voice still lingering in the air. 

"Did something happen?" 

"Yeah, **_I_** did." 

"I'm confused." Vaeh tries carefully.

"I know. Like I said, I can't right now… I have no idea when she's showing up, and I have to save what little energy I have left to battle those anxieties." They sit at a four-way stop, with no other traffic in sight. Penny reaches for the turn signal.

"Okay,” Vaeh continues, “Is that why you've circled the block twice?" 

Penny closes her eyes, and Vaeh can see the blush on the edge of her face, but it's not because she's playing coy. Vae knows this level of stress. She understands the flight or fight response. 

"Perhaps it's time to go home?" Vaeh holds out her hand palm up so that Penny can grasp it, and they circle the block another half loop before they pull into a driveway that leads to a mid-sized Mediterranean home nestled behind some greenery. 

"This is your Dad's place?" 

"And Maze's. Come on." And Penny undoes her belt, slipping it off her shoulder and exhaling deeply before squeezing Vaeh's hand. 

"Lead the way," Vaeh tells her quietly before pulling away and undoing her own. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~*~*~
> 
> I might be putting this on hiatus for a wee bit, work has been picking up more lately and I've been crafting it's companion piece so they weave together and create an actual puzzle that will make sense, and to do that I need to work on both at the same time. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!


End file.
